Ex-poultry plant manager gets 3 years for $1.9M theft

The former general manager of a Coquitlam poultry plant who stole nearly $2 million from his employer has been sentenced to three years in prison.

In March 2016, Bruce Steven Arabsky, 54, pleaded guilty to the offence against Superior Poultry Processing Ltd.

In imposing sentence on the accused Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Miriam Gropper said denunciation and deterrence of the crime were the primary sentencing principles.

“Mr. Arabsky was a senior and trusted employee engaged in a sophisticated and ongoing theft of his employer,” said the judge. “The amount he stole was significant and the breach of his employer’s trust has had a longlasting impact on the company and the owners personally.”

Court heard that between November 2009 and May 2010 the father of five made several dozen electronic transfers totalling $1.9 million from Superior to a company in Saskatchewan controlled by him. He did not tell his employer he’d done so and the employer was unaware the money was missing.

The theft was only discovered when the company was looking into another financial issue and stumbled upon the crime. In victim impact statements filed in court, the owners said that they were devastated by the betrayal of their former employee.

At the time he transferred the money, Arabsky was deep in debt and desperate, the judge was told.

Gropper said the aggravating factors in the case included that the accused used his good character and reputation to pursue the unlawful endeavour, attempted to deceive the company when the theft was discovered and the unlawful conduct was only stopped when he was fired.

The mitigating factors included that he had no prior criminal record, had pleaded guilty and had found employment elsewhere from the time of the offence until the sentencing hearing.

In a separate civil action in B.C. Supreme Court, Arabsky was ordered by another judge to pay the company the $1.9 million he had stolen. He has paid back $400,000 of that amount so far.

“While the amount is far from full restitution, partial restitution is a mitigating factor to be taken into account,” Justice Gropper said of the amount Arabsky has repaid.

The judge added that she accepted that Arabsky’s overall risk of reoffending is low.

The Crown had sought a sentence of four years in prison while Arabsky’s lawyer argued for a sentence of 30 months in jail.

The accused had little reaction to the sentence as he stood in the prisoner’s dock in the Vancouver courtroom. Several of his family members sat in the public gallery behind him.