Riki Aspin entering court prior to her sentencing hearing on Friday, Jan 12. She defrauded her former employer out of more than $47,000 in the fall and winter of 2019. (CHEK News)

By Ian Holmes

breach of trust

Nanaimo woman convicted of brazen workplace scam

Jan 15, 2024 | 5:35 AM

NANAIMO — A selfish former bookkeeper who bilked at least $47,000 from her former employer was sentenced following a late guilty plea.

Riki Rianne Aspin avoided jail and was ordered to pay restitution after a jointly submitted sentence recommendation was accepted by a provincial court judge in Nanaimo on Friday, Jan 12.

The 44-year-old woman was confirmed to have stolen $47,337.68 between Oct. and Dec. of 2019.

She pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000.

Aspin was scheduled to be tried before a supreme court jury after she was ordered to stand trial following a preliminary inquiry last summer.

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Aspin, who has a bookkeeping and accounting employment history, was in a position of trust at Coastal Installations, a Cedar-based modular construction firm.

“This was a situation where Ms. Aspin felt she was working for and deserved more compensation due to her role,” her lawyer Schuyler Roy told court.

Her position of trust included knowledge and access to company bank accounts, payroll, operations and issuing payments to employees and third parties.

She worked for the family-run business for nearly a decade.

After Aspin was confronted about the missing money, she left the company in the spring of 2020.

Many documents, confidential files, banking records and annual financial summaries were missing from the company following Aspin’s departure, according to the agreed statement of facts.

She was convicted of making 14 transactions, most of them valued at $4,000 each from a company savings account into her personal banking account.

Roy told court the criminal charges and legal proceedings caused her client a lot of stress and anxiety.

While Aspin declined to address the court with the impacted business owners in the courtroom gallery, Roy insisted her client is sorry and embarrassed.

“She is remorseful for what occurred. She does wish for me to address the court on her behalf.”

Aspin was handed a year-long conditional sentence order (CSO), followed by a year of probation. Her CSO terms include an overnight curfew.

She won’t legally be allowed to be in a position of financial authority with an employer for at least two years.

Aspin currently serves in an administrative capacity with Island Health.

“She does not deal with anything financially related or even related to confidential medical documents…it’s simply a scheduling role,” Roy said.

Aspin was also ordered to repay the money she stole, which judge Brian Harvey said he hopes is done in a timely fashion.

To date, court was told Aspin hasn’t paid any of the money back.

Victim impact statements were not filed, however, the Crown reported the business owners were shocked and disappointed by Aspin’s conduct.

She now has a life-long criminal record after previously having no dealings with the judicial system.

“You should consider yourself fortunate with the amount of funds taken from this business when you were in a position of trust,” judge Harvey said. “You unilaterally decided to take matters into your own hands financially and deposit to your account in excess of $47,000, that’s not an insignificant amount of money.”

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ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes