A Boyle woman who defrauded a local trucking company of almost $500,000 over the course of two years will spend the next three months awaiting her sentence and preparing for a lengthy stay behind bars.
Sharri Ann Johnson appeared in person at the Boyle Court of Justice Dec. 10 when her lawyer Daniel Chivers entered a guilty plea to one count of fraud over $5,000 on her behalf.
Justice Charles Gardner accepted the guilty plea and met the defense’s request to delay sentencing until March.
“There’s going to be a custodial sentence,” said Chivers. “Given the circumstances, she’s asking to adjourn the matter to March 25 so she can arrange her personal affairs.”
Crown prosecutor Taylor Noble told court Johnson worked for Boyle-based trucking company Glare Holdings Ltd between 2015 and the end of 2022 as an administrative assistant. In 2018, she was given payroll and book balancing duties.
Over her last two years at the company, Johnson was found to have misappropriated $484,894 through fraudulent bank transfers poised as payroll.
Court heard in 2021, Johnson made 123 deposits from a Glare bank account as part of her payroll duties. Twenty-four of these transactions were found to be legitimate payroll deposits. The remaining 99 were not.
“In 2021, Sharri Johnson made 92 fraudulent deposits from the company’s TD account into her personal CIBC account guised as payroll,” said Noble, equating to $261,364 in fraudulent payments.
Johnson also made seven payments to the balance owing on her personal Canadian Tire mastercard in 2021 to the tune of $42,200. In all, Johnson was found to have taken more than $300,000 from the company in 2021.
In 2022, Johnson made 18 real deposits and 49 fraudulent ones, and walked away with an extra $164,228 on top of her regular pay, court heard.
Two more payments to her credit card also cost Glare an additional $17,100, bringing the total dollar amount of defrauded funds to $181,328 in 2022.
Under the Canadian Criminal Code, Johnson could receive a maximum of 14 years in prison.