Woman jailed for stealing $100K from non-profit to feed her gambling addiction

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A former Moncton Hospital gift shop employee was sent to jail on Wednesday for stealing more than $100,000 to support her gambling addiction.

“I’d just like to say how deeply sorry I am for everything,” Pamela Susan Stokes said moments before she was led out of the courtroom by deputy sheriffs to begin serving her time.

Stokes apologized for the hardships she caused her former employer and co-workers, saying she loved working there and thought she had “great bosses.” But her addiction took hold of her and she did what she did.

“I wish I had sought help for my problem,” she told the court. “I hope in time people can forgive me for what I did.”

Stokes, 60, was to stand trial over three days in December after pleading not guilty to a charge of stealing more than $5,000 from the Moncton Hospital Nurses Healthcare Auxiliary Inc. between May 28, 2018, and Sept. 26, 2018. The non-profit organization runs the gift shop. She instead pleaded guilty and was before provincial court Judge Luc Labonté for sentencing Wednesday.

The judge accepted a joint recommendation for nine months jail and 18 months probation, which includes orders to be assessed and treated for addiction and mental health issues. Stokes is also banned from going to any gambling establishment and was ordered to pay back $103,255, which is what she stole, less the $4,000 she already paid back.

“She still intends to pay back what she stole,” said defence lawyer Vincent Dubuc, “but she’s likely not going to ever pay it all back.”

Dubuc, prosecutor Jean-Francois Cyr and the judge all agreed the nine-month jail term was low, given the amount taken, the fact it was taken over four months and the victim was a non-profit organization. But Dubuc and Cyr both told the court Stokes was the most remorseful offender they had seen during their law careers, from her apologies to her co-operation with police to her efforts to repay the money before she was even charged.

Dubuc said it’s not a case where she stole the money and lived the high life.

“She would take the money, go directly to the casino and gamble it all away,” he said.

“I was going through a really dark time,“ Stokes testified at an earlier hearing. “I was depressed, I lived alone, I was mentally in a dark spot.”

To alleviate the isolation and depression, Stokes said she would go to Casino New Brunswick and gamble. She said she started gambling her paycheques, winning a little, then losing a lot.

Stokes then started taking money from the gift shop. Her plan was to recoup her losses at the casino, then pay back what she took from her employer.

“That didn’t happen,” she testified. “I just kept digging the hole bigger.”

The judge said on Wednesday that while he doesn’t believe Stokes will need to be deterred from doing this again, jail is necessary to send a message to others who might do it.

He pointed out that she stole from the shop over four months, 22 separate times.

“You had a chance to reflect on what you were doing and you chose to continue,” he said, adding the auxiliary was “devastated by the theft,” according to its victim impact statement.

In an agreed statement of facts submitted to the court, the lawyers said Stokes had worked for the auxiliary for six or seven years at the hospital’s gift shop as a cashier and had been promoted to senior clerk in 2013. Part of her job was to make cash deposits at the bank twice a week, but she was contacted by the auxiliary’s bookkeeper in September 2018 when he discovered no deposits had been made since May.

After a review it was determined Stokes had stolen $107,255.40 from May to September 2018.

Beverley Allen testified earlier in the case that she was president of the auxiliary at the time of the theft. She said the board held an emergency meeting and sought legal advice. The lawyer agreed with the board that they would never recoup such a large amount from Stokes, but they had a meeting with her in September 2018 and she agreed to pay back $500 per month. Allen said they didn’t go to police at that time.

“We didn’t want her to have a record,” she told the court.

Stokes paid back $4,000 between October 2018 and June 2019 but then ran out of money. As a result, the board reported it to the police in October 2019.

Allen testified the auxiliary takes any profits and gives them mainly to the Friends of the Moncton Hospital, but also uses them to help patients in hospital over Christmas who have no family, support a nurses education fund, and give to Crossroads for Women or other groups that need help.

Because of Stokes’ theft they couldn’t live up to what they had promised to give.