Former Hat Police Commission chair sentenced to prison

Rolf Traichel, the disgraced former Medicine Hat Police Commission chair accused of defrauding the local Catholic school board of nearly $1 million, has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to possessing stolen property.

Traichel appeared before Judge Timothy Hironaka of Lethbridge in provincial court Thursday, walking into the prisoner’s box before his sentencing, which includes restitution of $999,000 to be paid over four years.

Charges of fraud over $5,000 and money laundering were withdrawn in exchange for his guilty plea.

The sentence was part of a joint submission between Traichel’s counsel, John Evans, and Calgary-based special prosecutor Tony Bell.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Traichel — who worked as the Catholic board’s director of IT from 1998-2017 — submitted and approved 203 invoices between September 2010 and December 2016 from a company he owned and controlled without the board’s knowledge.

He charged the board for duplicate services, equipment incompatible with their systems and unearned consultancy fees totalling $999,000, which were deposited into his bank account.

Traichel was arrested in August 2018 following a sixmonth investigation.

Police said at the time of his arrest they believed his wrongdoing was confined solely to the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education.

Traichel sat on the police commission from 2012-17, serving as its chair from 201416.

MHCBE chair Dick Mastel said he’s pleased to see that justice was served, declining comment on when the board noticed the funds were missing.

“We’re thankful that the judicial system worked the way it did and we’re happy that there is a restitution order,” Mastel said, adding the board is confident it will receive the funds in the allotted time span.

The board’s operations weren’t significantly hampered by the stolen money, he added.

“We are a small board and $1 million is a lot of money ... If we had that money, we probably could have done things differently, but if it’s missing, it’s missing and you operate with what you have.”

As a mitigating factor in his sentencing, Bell cited Traichel’s lack of a prior criminal record when the events in question occurred.

However, his August arrest wasn’t Traichel’s first dealing with police in 2018.

Traichel pled guilty to assault in November 2018 relating back to an incident in March 2016, when he was chair of the police commission.

That charge wasn’t laid until May 2018, while he was still under investigation for the fraud-related charges.

Traichel was sentenced to one year probation for the assault.

In addition to his roles with the police commission and Catholic board, Traichel was chair of the Alberta Association of Police Governance, director on the boards of Medicine Hat Co-op and Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team, as well as past chair of the Medicine Hat Assessment Review Board.