Weekends in jail for 90 days for woman who defrauded disabled clients

A former support worker and counsellor for adults with developmental disabilities who helped herself to more than $90,000 from her clients’ bank accounts will serve 90 days in jail on weekends.

Catherine Hunter, 55, of Niagara Falls, had already pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud over $5,000. The offence, which helped fuel a gambling addiction, took place over a period of almost nine years.

“It would be hard to imagine, if one were a criminal, a better group of people, to victimize,” Judge Tory Colvin said.

“They are people who are challenged. They are people who cannot care for themselves. They are people who by their very disabilities require support and compassion. They have to be able to trust the people that are looking after them.

“The victims, in this case, are people who are, first of all, unlikely to complain because they couldn’t understand what’s happening to them. Secondly, if they did complain, they aren’t likely to be believed.”

Niagara Support Services reimbursed the clients.

Before being led away in handcuffs to serve the first day of her sentence, Hunter turned and addressed some of her victims.

After taking a few seconds to compose herself, she said, through tears, “I am sorry guys. I abused something I shouldn’t have. I would say trust people again — not all everyone is like me. I am truly sorry.”

The bill for the fraud is more than $160,000. It also includes the cost of a forensic audit Niagara Support Services had to conduct to discover the full extent of the fraud.

Hunter suffers from post-polio syndrome and is now on a $1,200 a month CPP disability pension, her lawyer Taylor Robertson said. She has paid restitution of $2,000.

She offered to pay $120 a month restitution. At that rate, it would take her about 113 years to pay everything off.

Colvin said that he wouldn’t make an order for her to pay restitution on any particular schedule given Hunter’s limited means. He did, however, leave the order in place.

Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Brown asked the judge to impose a sentence of 12 months straight time. Robertson suggested the 90-day intermittent sentence.

Hunter also received three years of probation.

She has already undergone inpatient treatment for a gambling addiction.

“I have to bear in mind, a sentence not served on weekends, would end up costing Ms. Hunter the limited support she has now under the disability program,” Colvin said.

Colvin added documents filed by Robertson made it clear Hunter has been plagued with health issues most of her life, and they took a turn for the worse in 2005, the year the fraud began.

“That does not excuse what’s happened,” Colvin said.

“How one reacts to pain, or what one does to numb the pain, can vary according to the individual, from drug addictions to alcohol addictions, and in this case, a gambling addiction. It is an attempt to mask or hide from the issues.

“I find it upsetting that Ms. Hunter had a Player’s Advantage Card and was well known to the casinos. It is significant that her losses from April 2008 to 2014 were $303,832. That, of course, goes way beyond the money that is alleged to have been taken. It obviously impoverished her and may have been money from her friends and other sources that have not been made public.”

Before she was fired and arrested, Hunter had been employed at Niagara Support Services since 1982. The agency, which provides residential and day services to adults with developmental disabilities, operates an apartment complex for clients on Barker Street in Niagara Falls. Her yearly salary was about $47,000.

Between 2005 and 2014, Hunter was involved in the agency’s enhanced supportive living program. As part of her duties, she would accompany clients to assist with their banking.

In February 2014, a supervisor discovered money was missing from the bank accounts of several of Hunter’s clients.