judge seeks better information from counsel in sentencing of bookkeeper who defrauded n.s. parishes
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patricia anne dixon, left, a former bookkeeper for two roman catholic parishes on the eastern shore, speaks with lawyer aimee walters on may 5 before her appearance in dartmouth provincial court on fraud-related charges.
steve bruce
the woman who defrauded two roman catholic parishes of more than $225,000 will have to wait for her sentence hearing after the judge asked counsel for further submissions on their joint recommendation.
judge amy sakalauskas said monday that she wasn’t prepared to sentence patricia anne dixon, 52, of east chezzetcook, who pleaded guilty in may to one count of fraud over $5,000 shortly before she was to stand trial on 10 fraud-related charges.
the fraud was committed between 2010 and 2020, while dixon was employed as a bookkeeper for the former saint anselm’s parish in west chezzetcook and then saint john of the cross parish, which includes three churches between east chezzetcook and sheet harbour.
joint recommendation
on sept. 25, crown attorney brian cox and defence attorney aimee walters had asked the judge to impose a conditional sentence of two years less a day, followed by a year of probation. the proposed sentence also included a restitution order for $225,258.
sakalauskas told counsel monday in dartmouth provincial court that she wanted further submissions on the joint recommendation and had questions about section 380.2 of the criminal code. the judge also wanted to know the legal entity to which the restitution would be paid since saint anselm’s parish closed in 2018.
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the judge said the cases presented to her by counsel didn’t help deal with the range of the sentence. she was further frustrated by having to go “hunting for cases.”
“i recall getting maybe six cases and only one of them where a (conditional sentence order) was granted for a larger fraud and it was by way of a joint recommendation, which courts across the country are really clear have minimal value by way of precedent,” said sakalauskas.
“i found myself (sunday) afternoon doing counsel’s job in looking further into cases when i really feel like it should be the job of counsel to put that information before the court. because of the cases you gave me, i did not find them to be overly helpful on the situation before me on that issue of the range,” she said.
“certainly, there was an acknowledgement at the time of the original sentencing hearing that what counsel was recommending was on the lower end of what would be the range in this province,” she added.
“i think that when you’re looking for something on the lower end and the words used are exceptional circumstances or extenuating, i didn’t hear a lot about that from counsel.”
cox said he believed the cases before the court were a scan of the law for sentencing fraud in nova scotia.
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“perhaps not circumstances of this case, but they were sufficient to set out broadly how the courts in this province have dealt with breach of trust in this area and whether a true jail sentence or a conditional sentence is available and under what circumstances,” said cox.
“i spoke in my sentencing submission as to why the crown is recommending this particular disposition. i canvassed some of the case law that provided a legal path for the court to accept it based on law in this province. but under the 380.2 prohibition order, what i can say is that the recommended conditional sentence and probation order contains language that actually doesn’t mirror but it certainly was based on the 380.2 prohibition.”
a new hearing has been set for dec. 1 at dartmouth provincial court.
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