Criminal record avoided

Accused receives conditional discharge for fraud offences

Turning herself in to police on charges related to fraudulent purchases of allterrain vehicles may help spare a former Okanagan woman from getting a criminal record — even after being sentenced Monday on three of the offences.

Jenna Nicole Loree, 31, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a forged document and a single count of causing a person to use a forged document.

She was granted a conditional discharge, meaning if she successfully completes a one-year probation term, the charges will be expunged from her record. Conditions of her probation include completing 60 hours of community service and writing apology letters to the victims, who will be left to pursue restitution through civil lawsuits.

Court heard the offences took place over a one-week span in May 2012, when Loree contacted people in Kelowna, Summerland and Penticton selling used ATVs and purchased them using a fake bank draft, money order and certified cheque, respectively.

Mounties caught up with Loree in Vernon in late June of that year, when she tried to purchase a second ATV from one of the victims.

She was arrested and gave a statement to officers, “but not much was obtained in the way of useful evidence at that time,” said Crown counsel Andrew Vandersluys.

He described the offences, which resulted in a total loss to the victims of $24,000, as “not insignificant,” and suggested a conditional sentence of house arrest for Loree.

A conditional sentence would have resulted in a criminal record, however, and defence counsel Clarke Burnett argued his client and the public would be better served by a discharge.

Burnett told the court Loree contacted him in August 2017 after failing a criminal record check in Alberta, where she was seeking employment after completing a certificate in childhood education.

He said the charges came as a surprise to Loree, who showed up for court in 2012 on the date given to her by police, but was told there was no file. Loree thought the charges — which weren’t laid until August of that year — were being dropped, and subsequently went on with her life.

Burnett also suggested Loree purchased the ATVs at the direction of her abusive then-boyfriend, who plied her with heroin and organized the schemes.

“Ms. Loree is an example of someone who was not physically abused, but very extensively mentally abused and manipulated,” said Burnett.

Loree, who eventually fled the relationship, apologized in court.

“It’s so out of character that it doesn’t even sound like you’re talking about me. It’s been a journey through this whole thing, and I’ve come so far from it,” she said.

Judge Michelle Daneliuk accepted that Loree acted under the direction of her former partner, and also credited the woman with pleading guilty, turning herself in and rehabilitating herself.

Given all that, “it would not be contrary to the public interest to impose a discharge in this case,” said Daneliuk.