For the sixth time in three years the case of a former bookkeeper who pleaded guilty to defrauding a Burnaby school of $66,000 has been delayed at the request of her counsel.
Jodi Fingarsen, a former bookkeeper at Alpha Secondary, was charged with fraud over $5,000 in February 2013 for allegedly writing 66 irregular cheques between 2008 and 2010.
She originally pleaded not guilty, and her case was set for trial in February 2014.
By Feb. 17, 2014, however, she had changed her mind and pleaded guilty instead. But that plea was thrown out at a sentencing hearing four months later by a provincial court judge who said the former bookkeeper hadn’t actually acknowledged guilt.
Fingarsen was then scheduled five times over the next 12 months to plead guilty before she flip-flopped again in June 2015 and entered a not-guilty plea.
Her trial, set for earlier this month, has been delayed again, this time because of a scheduling conflict for her lawyer, John Banks, who was involved in a jury trial that took longer than expected.
“This happens once in a while,” Crown prosecutor Jennifer Horneland told the NOW. “It’s unfortunate because this is such an old case.”
Fingarsen’s next appearance is Feb. 24 to set a new date for her trial.
Besides the criminal charges, Fingarsen also faces a parallel civil claim from the Burnaby school district, launched in June 2012.
It alleges Fingarsen stole up to $100,000 from school coffers over three years.
Besides writing fraudulent cheques, the civil claim alleges Fingarsen “fraudulently converted, for her own use and for her own benefit, various amounts of cash received from numerous sources as a result of fundraising activities, donations, student fees and fees for field trips, etc.”
