Paying the price

Annapolis Valley woman who defrauded military resource centre sentenced for tax evasion, forgery

An Annapolis Valley woman who was handed a federal sentence last year for defrauding the Greenwood Military Family Resource Centre has pleaded guilty to more charges laid under the Criminal Code and Income Tax Act charges.

Karen Lorraine Byers, 57, pleaded guilty to eight of the 17 charges against her in Kentville provincial court Aug. 15, two counts under the Income Tax Act and six under the Criminal Code.

Byers pleaded guilty to wilfully evading paying $17,316 in taxes for the 2008, 2009 and 2010 taxation years by claiming false non-refundable tax credits for which she was not entitled in the amount of $60,000. The offence was committed between Dec. 31, 2007, and April 28, 2011.

She pleaded guilty to wilfully evading paying taxes in the amount of $41,157 for the 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 taxation years by claiming false non-refundable tax credits for which her husband, Gary Wayne Byers, was not entitled to in the amount of $ 142,500. The offence was committed between Dec. 31, 2007, and April 29, 2014.

Judge Claudine MacDonald fined Byers $17,316 and $41,157 in relation to the two Income Tax Act charges.

Byers pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery, making false documents, charitable donation receipts in the name of the Greenwood Military Family Resource Centre totalling $23,000, $25,000 and $22,000, with the intent that they be acted on as if genuine. These offences were committed in Kentville between Dec. 31, 2008, and Sept. 5, 2013.

Byers pleaded guilty to three counts of using forged documents, the three charitable donation receipts, as if they were genuine. These offences were committed in Kentville Sept. 21, 2010, Feb. 4, 2011, and Sept. 4, 2013.

On the six Criminal Code charges, Byers was sentenced to one year in jail, to be served concurrently to a federal sentence she’s already serving. The remaining charges against her were withdrawn.

The Canadian Forces National Investigative Service began investigating Byers for the expropriation of funds from the military family resource centre, her former employer, in 2011. Byers worked for the centre for 13 years prior to her resignation in March 2011.

Byers was sentenced in April 2015 to three-and-a-half years of federal custody for defrauding the centre of approximately $409,964. She was also ordered to repay the stolen funds.

Along with her husband, Gary Wayne Byers, she also pleaded guilty to living off the proceeds of crime. Gary Byers was handed a 24-month suspended sentence with probation.