Sooke woman abused by U.K. boyfriend in welfare fraud

• 35-year-old ordered to pay $29,000 in restitution to provincial government • Judge: ‘I cannot for a minute begin to comprehend what you have gone through’

A Sooke woman forced to collect welfare cheques for her violent and controlling English boyfriend must complete six weeks of house arrest and pay $29,000 in restitution to the provincial government.

Rebekah Ann Dunn was originally charged with fraud over $5,000.

On Friday, the 35-year-old single mother pleaded guilty in Victoria provincial court to obtaining money by providing false information.

Prosecutor Paul Cheeseman told the court that Dunn received monthly cheques from B.C. social assistance while she was living in England from August 2011 to March 2014.

During some of that time, Dunn was also receiving benefits in England.

In March 2015, she was convicted in that country of making false statements and failing to notify the government of her change in circumstances.

Judge Adrian Brooks accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence, saying the six-week sentence of strict house arrest was appropriate because of Dunn’s desperate circumstances.

“First, I cannot for a minute begin to comprehend what you have gone through, and it is significant and tragic that anybody has to go through that,” Brooks said.

“But you have come out on the other side and that is a testament to your character.”

However, Brooks stressed that it should never be forgotten that the community provides benefits to people in need and the benefits should be administered only to those in need.

“The entire integrity of the program suffers in the eyes of taxpayers when someone takes advantage,” he said. “It is a negative thing for the program and for people who truly need assistance.”

Cheeseman told the court that Dunn began receiving social assistance in 2009.

In August 2011, she called social assistance and told them she was in England for a funeral and would not be back in time to pick up her cheque. She asked the government to set up electronic deposits and began receiving monthly deposits.

In April 2014, after returning to Canada, she called the ministry and said she wanted to cancel her income assistance.

A week later, the Canada Border Services Agency was contacted by authorities in Britain who had found Dunn’s B.C. social assistance documents while investigating her for benefit fraud.

“That’s how the false pretences were discovered,” Cheeseman said. “The total amount of the fraud was $29,110.44.”

Victoria lawyer Claire Tollefson told the court that Dunn was originally granted disability in 2009 after a breakdown due to depression. In the summer of 2010, at the suggestion of her parents, she went to visit relatives in England.

She met Clarry Pidgeon, a man who had recently been released from jail after serving a threeyear sentence for assault causing grievous bodily harm to his former partner.

“He was a very manipulative and controlling individual. He began to groom her, calling her and texting her repeatedly,” Tollefson said.

When Dunn came back to Canada and told her parents about this “wonderful man,” they were deeply concerned because of their daughter’s vulnerability, Tollefson said.

Pidgeon came for a visit and exerted pressure and control over Dunn.

He began to physically abuse her and was arrested by the RCMP after choking her.

Dunn did not co-operate with police and he wasn’t charged.

Pidgeon returned to England but kept up the contact pressure, leaving threatening messages for Dunn.

In 2011, Dunn travelled to England to visit Pidgeon. He increasingly isolated her from her family.

“He monitored her calls, her emails, all her activities. When he left the apartment, he took her laptop. He gave her a pay-as-yougo phone and called her several times during the day.”

Dunn became pregnant and had a difficult pregnancy. She decided to stay in England until the baby was born.

“As the pregnancy progressed, he abused her mentally, emotionally, physically. She’s described it to me as a combination of humiliation, threats, degradation, displays of power, twisting reality, exhaustion and occasional acts of kindness or expressions of affection,” Tollefson said.

Pidgeon made her open a bank account, but limited her access to it. He made her apply for credit cards and ran up huge bills.

He directed her on how to continue to receive benefits and maintain the pretense she was still in Canada, Tollefson said. “He was controlling all the money.”

Pidgeon stayed in the background whenever she phoned or Skyped her parents.

Her mother saw bruises on her face.

Dunn was finally able to end the relationship when Pidgeon was sentenced to jail in 2013 for assaulting her.

By this time, he had left her £19,000 in debt.

The baby was born prematurely, contracted a virus in the intensive care neonatal unit and became hearing impaired.

“So you have a single mother of a hearing-impaired child with insurmountable debts,” Tollefson said. “She kept receiving payments because she didn’t know what to do.”

Dunn has gradually recovered from the years of abuse. She volunteers, teaching and supporting victims of abuse, Tollefson said.

“She does accept responsibility for her actions. … She has taken control of her life and has set herself up to help others.”

Brooks ordered Dunn, who has dual citizenship, to surrender her travel documents to the RCMP during her house arrest.