Restitution order quashed

Former Cumberland development exec originally ordered to pay $97,000

Rhonda Kelly will not have to pay the province $97,000 in restitution as a result of her role as the executive director of the former Cumberland Regional Development Authority.

In a 15-page decision released Wednesday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal agreed that Kelly did not personally benefit from the money and didn’t see why the former executive should have to pay out her own pocket for money that was used to benefit the community.

“There was no elaborate scheme that disguised where the funds were spent. As the Crown acknowledged in its factum, it was CRDA’S general accounting system that prevented knowing exactly where every dollar raised was spent, because there was comingling of project funds,” Justice J.A. Beveridge said in his written decision.

“That was the practice at CRDA, not part of an elaborate scheme hatched or perpetrated by (Kelly).”

Kelly received eight months house arrest followed by four months of abiding by a curfew after pleading guilty in April 2017 to causing Economic and Rural Development and Tourism to act upon a forged document.

Nine other charges were dismissed.

Justice Beveridge said the agreed statement of facts stated the money went to CRDA. None of it went to Kelly’s personal benefit and there “is no evidence to suggest that funds were ‘diverted’ from community projects.”

Because of the absence of any basis to say the province suffered a loss of property because of the commission of an offence is sufficient to quash the restitution order.

Kelly’s sentencing last summer ended a seven-year story that began in 2010 when two CRDA employees were dismissed after voicing their concerns over some of the practices taking place in the government-funded organization.

An ombudsman’s report backed up their concerns calling for a forensic audit that was completed in 2013 by Pricewaterhousecoopers.

Charges were laid against Kelly in 2016.