Ex-Service Canada employee gets 18 months for stealing $180K in pension, seniors funds

'Further, the harm extended beyond the financial loss because it was the type of crime that erodes public confidence in critically important public institutions'

A former Service Canada employee who stole nearly $180,000 in unclaimed seniors benefits has been given jail time and ordered to pay restitution. Bonnie Lo was sentenced to 18 months plus a year of probation after Court of King’s Bench Justice Kathryn Oviatt rejected her request to serve time in the community on house arrest. Oviatt said that even though Lo pleaded guilty and suffers from an array of mental health issues, her crimes require time behind bars.

“Ms. Lo stole old age security and pension benefits from some of Canada’s most vulnerable,” Oviatt wrote in the July 9 decision. “Although the taxpayer ultimately paid the price, there was a real likelihood that the fraud resulted in delayed payments, uncertainty, and the burden of vulnerable Canadians having to establish their entitlement to funds that were fraudulently diverted.” “Further, the harm extended beyond the financial loss because it was the type of crime that erodes public confidence in critically important public institutions.”

Lo worked as a payment services officer with Service Canada for nearly a decade, helping clients with Old Age Security (OAS) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits. That work gave her access to sensitive databases allowing her to see client information, change direct deposit details and reissue or redirect benefit payments, Oviatt said. Over four years between 2012 and 2016, Lo used her database access to deposit benefit payments that had not been redeemed by their intended recipients into her own bank account.

Lo was found out in 2018 after a client reported previously issued CPP cheques had already been cashed. An investigation determined Lo had diverted a total of 176 and CPP and OAS payments totalling $179,689.80. Lo later pleaded guilty to fraud and breach of trust by a public officer.

The Crown argued for just under two years in jail plus a year of probation, while the defence sought a conditional sentence order. Oviatt concluded a conditional sentence would not be appropriate, given Lo’s abuse of a position of trust, the “planning and sophistication” that went into the scheme, and the “sustained and repetitive conduct” involved. Lo also had a previous 2014 conviction for fraud and forgery for convictions, which resulted in a nine-month conditional sentence.

“The prior conviction, and resulting sentence, arose in the middle of the offending for which we are here today,” Oviatt said. “Despite the previous conviction and sentence, Ms. Lo continued to offend.” Defence lawyer Dale Knisely submitted a psychological report that detailed “a longstanding pattern of childhood trauma” suffered by his client, as well as “mental health conditions, gambling addiction, relationship dysfunction, emotional dysregulation, and chronic feelings of worthlessness and abandonment.”

Oviatt said that while Lo’s mental health issues are mitigating, appeal courts have said frauds involving public officials should routinely attract jail sentences. “While Ms. Lo’s personal circumstances are mitigating, they are offset by the significant and multiple aggravating factors present,” the judge said. “A period of incarceration is appropriate in the circumstances.”

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