Yellowknife (Mar 24/06) - A woman who tried to cash nine fraudulent cheques and was arrested three times with drugs and paraphernalia was sentenced to four months in jail this week.

A former Inuvik resident, Cynthia Stewart, 34, pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraudulently cashing cheques supposedly from the Yellowknife Women’s Society; for possessing cocaine and marijuana and for failing to attend court.

Judge Robert Gorin said the mitigating factor in her sentencing was the fact she pleaded guilty. He also gave her double-time credit for the 16 days she has spent in pre-trial detention.

“Your life has been completely destroyed through your drug use and addiction to crack,” Gorin said.

Stewart was also put on one-year probation; ordered to to take all counselling; and, to pay restitution to the businesses that cashed the cheques.

The fraud charges date back to April 2004. Police were alerted when the women’s society received a call from a Toronto bank indicating they had received suspicious returned cheques.

The court heard that Stewart had tried to cash nine cheques totalling $1,044.34 at various businesses and banks.

Three cheques were cashed at two businesses, two for $745.48 and one for $298.86.

Court was told that in July 2005, Stewart was arrested at a downtown hotel, where police found her passed out on a bed with drug paraphernalia, $285 in cash and a small amount of crack.

She failed to appear in court after that charge and was arrested again in October 2005. She was searched by police, who found one gram of cannabis, two tabs of codeine and a small amount of crack.

Again, Stewart failed to appear in court and she was arrested after being stopped March 6, 2006 after driving past a downtown nightclub.

Court was told that police discovered six crackpipes, crack and three cell phones on the passenger seat of the vehicle, and $500 in $20 bills on her person. The Crown provided photographs of the amounts of crack found, but could not provide weight amounts. by Dorothy Westerman

Northern News Services