A woman who stole more than $250,000 from a Manitoba hog farm was sentenced last week to 30 months in prison and ordered to repay the farm owner.
Patricia Cabelle Bittle, 40, stole the money from Hangar Farms of Rivers, Man., while working there as a controller/payroll clerk between 1994 and 1998.
She pleaded guilty in April.
During sentencing June 8, Brandon provincial court was told that Bittle stole the money by writing cheques to herself from Hangar Farms. She destroyed the cashed cheques after they were returned with the monthly bank statements.
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Bittle covered up her activities by entering the cheque amounts into the farm’s financial records as ordinary expenses such as hog feed and hydro.
“These were planned and deliberate offences,” said crown prosecutor James Ross.
“It’s an obvious case with a clear paper trail.”
Ross told the court that the thefts began just over two weeks after Hangar Farms hired Bittle in August 1994.
The first cheque she wrote to herself was for $1,000, but the amounts soon escalated until they eventually totaled $289,435.77.
Bittle’s lawyer, Bob Harrison, tried to convince the court that amnesia interfered with Bittle’s ability to recall writing cheques to herself without her employer’s consent.
The court was told that Bittle suffered from depression, felt under stress while at Hangar Farms and had been going through marital problems.
Harrison said Bittle has improved her career training after leaving Hangar Farms and has found employment in Winnipeg.
Her Winnipeg employer gave two letters of reference describing Bittle as trustworthy, competent and professional.
Justice Krystina Tarwid gave a less flattering appraisal while sentencing Bittle last week.
“She’s a thief and she’s a chronic thief.”
Bittle has a previous conviction for fraud in which she stole money while employed as a financial officer with the Canadian Armed Forces.
Bittle has repaid $67,480 by transferring property to the farm’s owner Larry Friesen. She also had turned over money from her bank accounts, investments and retirement savings.
Those transactions left her owing Hangar Farms $221,955.75, the amount for which she ordered last week to make restitution.
