Former Strathcona director pleads guilty to fraud

A gate for a corral. Used water troughs. A fence stapler. A solar pump.

According to court documents, those are some of the items a former Strathcona County civil servant illegally purchased with public funds, costing him his job and 12 months on house arrest. David James Churchill pleaded guilty in January to a single count of fraud over $5,000 related to financial misappropriation while he served as the county's director of transportation and agricultural services.

Churchill was set to face an Alberta court of justice trial late last month on three counts of theft over $5,000, fraud over 5,000, and uttering a forged document, but instead reached an agreement with the Crown to plead guilty.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Churchill fraudulently charged $8,723.11 to the county for items he used for his personal cattle business.

Between February 2020 and

June 2022, Churchill purchased 10 items either using the company credit card or submitting expenses for reimbursement.In addition to the items noted above, Churchill purchased a solar energizer ($409.49), a water tank ($489), fence insulators ($63.92) and some fence wire and posts.

The most expensive item was the solar pump ($2,923.20), purchased shortly before the onset of the pandemic out of his department budget.The fence stapler ($1,352.19), meanwhile, was acquired by an employee attending a conference in Las Vegas at Churchill's direction.

In April 2022, the county hired a private investigator to look into Churchill's activities. On June 6 of that year, the investigator and Churchill's supervisor confronted him in a meeting, which ended in his firing.

Some time later, the items were “found to have been returned” to a county storage yard.

The county, however, is not a cattle farm. “While Strathcona County now has the items for which it paid in its possession, these are not items for which Strathcona County generally has any use,” the agreed facts state.

The court documents offer no explanation for Churchill's actions. He was 44 when arrested.

RCMP initially said “over $16,000” was misappropriated for Churchill's personal use. County officials said council approved an independent, forensic audit within 24 hours of being briefed.

Churchill was handed a 20-month conditional sentence order, including 12 months of house arrest and eight months on curfew.