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Tsiigehtchic spending spree Former financial manager jailed for theft of more than $40,000
Daniel Campbell
Northern News Services
Published Monday, August 19, 2013
TSIIGEHTCHIC/ARCTIC RED RIVER
A former financial manager was sentenced to a year in jail on Aug. 16 for stealing more than $40,000 from the community of Tsiigehtchic.
Cecil Matthews, an accountant by trade, began working as a financial manager and occasionally, the senior administrative officer, for the Gwichya Gwich'in Band and the Hamlet of Tsiigehtchic in July 2007. He was fired on Feb. 5, 2010.
Matthews stole $10,930 using the credit card for the Tsiigehtchic community, and $29,752 using the Gwich'in band card. More than $19,000 of the charges on the cards were for cash advances.
Matthews also used the cards to purchase food, alcohol, dental services, hotels, car rentals and vacations.
The credit cards were intended to be used for goods and services for the community.
The total amount of money stolen from the band and community is $40,682.
Matthews appeared in NWT Supreme Court in Yellowknife on Aug. 15, wearing a neatly-pressed brown suit with slicked-back white hair. He softly mumbled his guilty plea to Justice Shannon Smallwood.
Matthews stole the money over one-and-a-half years, between August 2008 and January 2010. He is convicted on two counts of theft over $5,000 for his offences against the band and community.
Smallwood handed down two consecutive 12-month jail sentences to Matthews on Aug. 16, and ordered him to repay the money he had stolen.
Matthews never attempted to conceal his credit card usage. When confronted about the transactions by a band staff member, he agreed to pay the money back.
Matthews wrote two cheques to the band and community to cover some of the expenses, but both cheques bounced.
Matthews, 66, is originally from Guyana, South America. He has a prior criminal record. In 2002, Matthews was convicted of 11 counts of fraud and ordered to pay back $25,000 to the victim of that offence.
Crown prosecution slammed Matthews, arguing for a lengthy jail
sentence. Lawyer Kelly Onyskevitch said Matthews abused the trust the community gave him.
"There's an absence of any other motive other than greed," he said.
Marjorie Dobson, senior administrative officer and band manager in Tsiigehtchic, told News/North the stolen money had an bad effect on the community, but the community is doing relatively well now.
The community now has more controlled measures dealing with its finances.
"Definitely there's been a change ... a number of changes," she said.
The community has just one credit card now - and it's kept in the office, Dobson said. Reporting on transactions is done every month. In addition, the person who uses the credit card is not the same person who does the accounting, as was the case during Matthews' term.
"All credit card usage has to be authorized by the band manager or the SAO," Dobson said. "This is strictly adhered to."
Defence lawyer Caroline Wawzonek argued Matthews kept spending money using the credit cards because no one stopped him.
"Using the credit cards seemed to be appropriate, but Mr. Matthews now acknowledges it wasn't right," Wawzonek said.
Smallwood said given Matthew's financial background, he knew what he was doing was wrong, but continued doing so because he knew he could get away with it.
"He was the person who should have been on the lookout for theft and fraud," Smallwood said.
Wawzonek said Matthews has been discussing ways to pay back the money since being caught. He works occasionally as a bookkeeper in Tulita now. He offered a $5,000 cheque as a cash advance from one of his current employers to repay the band and community.
Smallwood said she doubts Matthews will be able to pay the money back, saying the small community of fewer than 200 people must have been hit hard financially by the theft. Matthews' main source of income now is his Canada Pension Plan fund.
"I'm not certain the band will ever fully recover the funds," she said.
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