Surrey Police officers and RCMP’s financial crimes are investigating accusations that a former finance employee of the city of Surrey defrauded the city of more than $ 2.5 million by reducing hundreds of checks to accounts associated with her and her business to bake boutique cakes.
According to a search warrant obtained by the CBC, the woman, whom the CBC does not name, since she has not been accused, she resigned from her work in the Finance Department in January 2024 after she was asked about what appeared to be a flesh falsified in some documents.
This irregularity supposedly led to the discovery of 183 fraudulent checks written to the old legal name of women, her mother and her secondary business, resorting to the funds held in accounts that had been inactive for years.
‘Committing fraud since 2017’
Judicial documents say that the city’s financial director called RCMP last January “to inform that its staff within the Finance Department had discovered fraud.”
An order issued in March to search for the woman’s work, the computer, states that Surrey City Kam Grewal told the police that the woman “had been committing fraud since 2017, exploiting their position and had disappointed the city of more than $ 2 million.”
The woman did not respond to the messages that remained on Wednesday and Thursday on a cell phone associated with her business, which identifies her by name. The business seems to have been bent and its website has been eliminated.
Court documents give an overview of the civic deposit process, it is suspected that the woman manipulates to reward.
“The city collects developer deposits, construction companies and individuals. The deposits are returned once they complete their projects and/or meet certain conditions established by the city,” says the search warrant.
“The city collects thousands of deposits every year and some deposits have been with the city for more than 20 to 40 years, since projects can be delayed, abandoned or the company has some other problems.”
Grewal supposedly told the Police that the woman “had access to the databases of the city that had allowed him to see the details about deposits and allowed him to change the beneficiary’s names of the checks that will be issued.”
‘Check that she didn’t expect’
According to the search warrant, the woman was initially suspended without pay and was told to leave the office immediately on January 25, 2024, after being confronted by falsification.
The next day, when the suspect would normally have gone to the accounts for paying to collect written checks such as returns from legitimate deposits, an employee of the Department of Engineering was sent instead.
The replacement employee “received 2 additional checks that he did not expect”, one made to the mother of the suspect and the other to a business of baking cakes.
“It was common knowledge in the office that [the woman] He also had a baking business on one side, “says the search warrant.
“It was also well known that she was an avid player. [She] I would often talk about the experiences he had. “
The following week, the woman sent an email to say that she was renouncing immediately. In the hours they followed, he allegedly called the engineering employee asking him to bring the two additional checks “to the reception to be able to pick them up.”
The employee “thought this was strange,” says the judicial document.
Monitoring of accounts
According to the search warrant, women’s supervisors discovered a total of 183 checks for a total of $ 2,537,599.67 written to the three associated accounts between 2017 and 2024.
The unique user identification of the woman was tracked to see where she allegedly made changes in addresses and payments linked to the holders of deposit accounts to carry out the fraud.
The Court documents establish a complicated process that begins with the allocation of a unique number of “vendor d” to each person who leaves a deposit with the city.
In an example cited in the search warrant, the woman’s user identification was used to insert her previous name and current address in a vendor D established for a supplier that gave the city a deposit of $ 9,943 in 2012.
In other examples, the user identification of women was supposedly used to withdraw money from long -term vendor D accounts to which they had just paid, changing the details in those accounts to issue new checks to your business or mother’s business.
The past fall, the police allegedly tried to obtain an audio statement from the woman’s mother, which “seemed quite old according to their appearance and slow movements.”
According to the search warrant, the woman’s mother told officers that she did not want to talk to the police.
The city’s response paints a different image
The city answered the CBC questions about the case on Thursday afternoon after they told him that the CBC planned to run a story on Friday morning. Instead of responding directly to the CBC application, the city issued a press release throughout the environment.
The statement does not refer to the affirmation of the search warrant that the alleged fraud was discovered as a result of an opportunity error.
The city states that irregularities were discovered in response to the “mandate of the mayor to guarantee the government fiscally responsible and to safeguard every dollar of the taxpayers.”
“Once the irregularities were discovered, the city immediately began an internal review and involved external forensic specialists. The matter was also immediately informed to Surrey RCMP who conducts a criminal investigation,” says the statement.
“Residents may be sure that decisive measures have been taken to protect public funds and recover the total amount in their name. Because the matter is before the courts, the city cannot make more comments at this time.”
The city also claims to have initiated legal procedures that do not name the employee.
None of the accusations contained in the search warrant has been proven in court.
