U of L employee theft case waiting on disclosure

By Tim Kalinowski on September 1, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com

Lawyers for a former University of Lethbridge accounting clerk accused of stealing more than half a million dollars from the school, are still awaiting additional disclosure from the Crown’s Special Prosecutions office, the court was told on Tuesday.
This was the second time defence had made the same request for additional disclosure after informing the court in July it anticipated considerably more than the 60 pages provided by the Crown’s office to date due to the lengthy police investigation involved in the case.
Special Crown Prosecutor Tony Bell based in Calgary has carriage over the case. Crown Prosecutor Bruce Ainscough advised defence counsel to make the disclosure request directly to Bell instead of attempting to do so through the Lethbridge Crown office.
Defence had previously made the same request in July and were encouraged to contact Special Prosecutions at that time as well, and the matter was adjourned at that time until Aug. 31.
The matter has now been further adjourned for another two weeks until Sept. 14 to follow up with that request in Calgary.
Donna Court, 57, was charged last April with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and possession of stolen property over $5,000, following a police investigation that began in 2018. The university contacted police after detecting a potential fraud through its internal processes, and investigators with the Economic Crimes Unit of the Lethbridge Police Service determined an employee had used her position at the university to falsify records and conceal the theft of more than $500,000.
“In March 2018, University of Lethbridge employees discovered a fraud perpetrated by a fellow employee,” the university said in a statement following Court’s arrest.
The statement said an employee with more than 30 years of experience at the University, allegedly “abused her detailed knowledge of the financial systems of the U of L and falsified records to conceal the estimated theft of $580,000.”
Court was fired after the alleged fraud and theft were discovered.
-With files from Delon Shurtz

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