By Ian Holmes

Former Nanaimo Hospice official stole $6K from the non-profit agency

Dec 11, 2018 | 5:14 PM

NANAIMO — The former executive director of a prominent organization is poised to be sentenced for misusing the charity’s credit card, while she also faces more serious charges in the Okanagan.

Susan Maureen Steen, 71, is slated to be sentenced on Dec. 20 at Provincial Court in Nanaimo after $6,000 was misused from Nanaimo Community Hospice Society’s (NCHS) credit card, according to the non-profit agency’s current executive director Paul Sibley.

He said Steen was fired by the NCHS board in June, 2017 after the credit card irregularities were noticed.

“(We) looked more deeply into the circumstances and within a day the decision was made to let her go,” Sibley told NanaimoNewsNOW.

Steen was fired roughly six months after she was hired and Nanaimo RCMP was notified immediately.

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Sibley said NCHS recovered $2,000 from Steen’s paycheque.

Court records showed Steen pleaded guilty in April to a count each of fraud and theft, while another fraud count was dropped by the Crown.

Steen is also accused of stealing a whopping $109,000 from the Central Okanagan Hospice Association between 2012 and 2016 while she allegedly had a credit card as executive director of the non-profit agency.

While the alleged thefts impacting the Kelowna based charity happened years ago, Steen wasn’t charged until last month.

Steen reportedly told Kelowna media she was dealing with “a profound gambling problem,” is remorseful for her actions and is getting treatment

Sibley, who was a NCHS board member when Steen was their executive director, said they were completely unaware of Steen’s personal issues and are taking the breach seriously.

“It has the ability to taint the work that we do. I feel that we were able to discover what was happening pretty quickly and mitigate the loss,” Sibley said.

NCHS has provided free support services to the dying and grieving for the past 38 years, which includes professional counselling programs.

Ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @Reporterholmes