Yellowknife (Feb 02/05) - The former treasurer of Commission Scolaire Francophone de Division will be sentenced today for embezzling $72,000 from the French school district.

Marcel Blanchet pleaded guilty yesterday in Supreme Court to a single count of theft over $5,000 in connection with the fraud.

"Mr. Blanchet profited from the confidence of the chairman of the board and the trustees," said Crown attorney Paul Falvo.

Falvo and defence lawyer Michel Fontaine both recommended to Justice Rene Foisy that Blanchet be given a conditional sentence.

Falvo proposed the 56-year-old father of three be placed under house arrest for 18 months at his farm in rural Quebec. During the remaining six months of the conditional sentence, he would be free to leave home whenever he pleased.

Blanchet played an instrumental role in the creation of the French-language board, lobbying the territorial government for funding in 1999, his lawyer said.

Blanchet was also the treasurer of the district during its transition to independence from the Yellowknife District One school board.

On what was supposed to be the second day of his trial, Blanchet admitted to writing himself $72,000 in fraudulent cheques between November of 2000 and March of 2002.

In a situation Fontaine described as "bizarre," the chairman of the school board gave Blanchet blank cheques to cover office expenses and his own salary.

"Upon its creation, the school board was vulnerable and Mr. Blanchet took advantage of that," Falvo said.

Blanchet was in serious financial trouble at the time and faced the choice of declaring bankruptcy or stealing money from the school board, Fontaine said.

"He was in no man's land."

As part of the sentencing agreement - in which the Crown dropped a second charge of theft - Blanchet agreed to repay $10,000 in two yearly instalments of $5,000.

Falvo asked Foisy to impose a restitution order for the remaining $62,000, though the board's chances of the recovering the money appear to be slim.

Blanchet is currently unemployed and plans to spend the summer working as a grounds keeper near the Quebec town of Rimouski, where his salary would be about $10 an hour, Fontaine said.

The current director of Commission Scolaire Francophone de Division, Gerard Lavinge, said the theft "made if difficult for the authority to carry out its mandate."

"It also caused considerable damage to the reputation of the school board," he said.

Foisy is expected to give his decision on Blanchet's sentence today, beginning at 10 a.m.