Guilty charge in $53,000 stolen from two Brandon non-profits

Joanna Bhaskaran, staff

Alanna Hillis was sentenced to just under two years of house arrest after she plead guilty to charges of theft and fraud for stealing from the Assiniboine Community College Students’ Association (ACCSA) and Brandon Citizen’s Advocacy (BCA) in Brandon, Manitoba. Between 2003 and 2006, Hillis stole an estimated $53,000 in total.

During that period, Hillis was employed as an advisor to the Adult Collegiate branch of the ACCSA and as an employee of the BCA group. She was volunteering with the students’ association but was employed as a secretary for the college.

The Adult Collegiate’s student council was a subsidiary of ACCSA and was responsible for reporting their financial status directly to the group. There was no system of checks and balances in place to prevent fraud and misuse of funds in the adult collegiate since it is a very small organization.

After Hillis’ thefts were discovered at BCA, she resigned at the college in December 2006.

“She volunteered herself into the role of maintaining [the association’s] money . . . she would do the statements, create reports and do the banking,” said Shauna Leckie, the executive director for ACCSA.

The police alerted the college after it was discovered that Hillis had stolen $27,000 from her previous position with the BCA.

Leckie was advised by the police to go through the accounts as far back as two and a half years. It was discovered that Hillis had stolen around $26,000 in the three years she had worked with the association.

According to Leckie, Hillis took the money by writing personal cheques to herself. The cheques needed to be signed by a second person, but Hillis would get around this by asking for cheques to be made out to herself, claiming she had paid money out of her own pocket for the expense. She wrote more than 50 personal cheques to herself during that time, writing larger financial amounts than what was actually due for the expense.

Hillis was also responsible for training the students in ACCSA on managing funds and for putting procedures into place to counter against fraud and the misuse of funds.

Hillis had also been writing cheques to the BCA using funds from ACCSA.

Leckie said there was evidence that “Hillis had made a deposit into the Adult Collegiate account of about $12,000 . . . but she had stolen far more than that.”

Hillis’ actions had far-reaching effects on the student council, according to Leckie. The students who were serving on the council when she left were “nervous, embarrassed and fearful” since they didn’t understand how it happened and whether they were responsible.

In an article on Macleans.ca, Hillis told the court, “I’m not a bad person, I was a stupid person and got caught . . . I just ask for a fair sentence and an opportunity to pay this money back.”

Hillis is required to perform 150 hours of community service and pay $750 in restitution every 15 days in order to pay the $27,000 she owes to BCA and the approximate $14,000 she owes the ACCSA. She will also be confined to her house except for work and counsel.

Leckie does not believe that house arrest and restitution will prevent the crime from happening again.

“A person who steals repeatedly and from more than one organization should have to face time in a physical jail. However, the way the judgment came out means that there is strong potential . . . to recoup some of the funds.”

Leckie said that Hillis has caused the association to reconsider its financial handling.

“We’ve learned a lot from this . . . and have drastically changed the way money is handled in our organization.”