Woman to serve jail sentence for fraud and stolen property

A 33-year-old woman who defrauded a man with dementia out of $600, and was caught several months later driving a stolen vehicle, was sentenced to 25 days in jail.

Jeanine Joy Blood was sentenced Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court, where she appeared by CCTV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre and pleaded guilty to charges of possession of stolen property and fraud under $5,000.

Court was told a man called police April 11, 2020 to report three cheques, totalling $600, had been written on his father’s bank account. The man explained someone had broken into his vehicle a couple of weeks earlier, but he didn’t realize there were cheques in the vehicle or that they were missing.

Crown Prosecutor Bruce Ainscough pointed out the complainant manages his father’s finances because his father has dementia and is in a long-term care facility.

Police determined that the cheques for $100, $200 and $300, written in Blood’s name, had been deposited in her bank account on March 7, March 22 and April 6 respectively.

Six months later, on Oct. 5, police received a call from a woman who said her Dodge Caravan had been stolen from her driveway. Later in the day police saw the vehicle as it pulled into a convenience store. Blood walked into the store, then later she and another person left out the back door. They were both identified through the store’s video surveillance camera.

Police were unable to immediately find the suspect, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Lethbridge lawyer Vincent Guinan said his client, who has three children, was heavily addicted to drugs at the time, but has since become “stable” and is receiving treatment to manage her addictions.

He said she is sorry for her actions and is taking responsibility for them, and intends to return to school and become involved with her children.

“I’m gonna try really hard to do good and not bad,” Blood told the judge.

Although sentenced to 25 days in jail, Blood was given credit for that amount of time she has already spent in custody, completing her sentence on the two charges. She remains in custody, however, on additional charges, for which she returns to court on Monday.