Million dollar fraud case headed back to trial

A million dollar fraud case is going back to trial.

In another turn of events today (October 11) in Superior Court, Justice Robert Scott told the court he couldn’t accept Cheryll Drumm’s pre-sentencing submission as she “made no admission of guilt, was not remorseful and there was no answer into how or why” she did what she did.

Drumm told Justice Scott she wished to go back to trial.

This case, which has been in front of the courts since September 5, 2017 finally went to trial in mid-June.

Two days into the trial, Drumm struck a plea deal changing her not guilty plea to guilty, on counts of fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and money laundering and fraud over $5,000.

Justice Scott stated the pre-sentencing report told the court Drumm was operating “in the grey zone,” and “doing as someone else instructed”.

He struck her plea and asked why she was wasting the court’s time.

Justice Scott said in the time the case has been before the court, Drumm has asked for numerous adjournments, 15 alone in Superior Court, to accommodate her.

Outside the front entrance of the Quinte Consolidated Courthouse in Belleville. (Photo: David Foot / Quinte News)

He continued by saying that she entered a plea and said she would tell the courts why she did what she did, but is not forthcoming with an admission of guilt.

Assistant Crown Attorney Jodi Whyte told the court that with no admission of guilt, there is no basis for a plea.

Defense Attorney John Wonnacott asked to be removed from the case, which was granted as Drumm had no objection.

Justice Scott advised Drumm to obtain legal council as quickly as possible and apply for legal aid or she may be forced to represent herself at trial, which he said would be very uncomfortable.

Originally, Cheryl Drumm, Allan Lasher and George Misuraca were all charged in connection with the case, but only Drumm was arraigned at the Quinte Courthouse.

Assistant Crown Attorney Jodi Whyte told the court back in June that between January 2010 and December 2014, Drumm manipulated company software and transferred funds to benefit both herself and the co-accused, to the tune of more than $1.6 million, when she was an employee at the former Bayshore Credit Union.

Bayshore has since amalgamated with Quintessential Credit Union to become Quinte First Credit Union.

Whyte is alleging that, since Drumm was an employee of the credit union and couldn’t deal with her own account, one of the ways she manipulated the software was to put funds into her granddaughter’s account and then transfer that money to herself.

Former Bayshore Credit Union CEO Joe Bell, who now works with the amalgamated Quinte First Credit Union, says they were tipped off to something wrong when Central One Credit Union, which handled Bayshore’s accounts, told them they had gone over the limit on an operating line of credit.

He told court that his first assumption was some sort of error with the credit union’s system, but a further investigation showed multiple instances of certified cheques being recorded as “duplicated” and being linked to Drumm, whose main job was to process paper or electronic transactions, such as cheques or electronic transfers, including pay cheques, pension payments and others.

Bell says those duplicated amounts were found to be false and Drumm was suspended with pay, pending an internal review of the situation.

The two co-accused in the case, Lasher and Misuraca had agreed to pay civil restitution in order to have their criminal charges dropped and court heard both are still involved in civil suits which have had a major financial impact on them.

Wonnacott also noted that while Drumm did admit to taking close to $90,000 for herself over the four-year span, she received no benefit or kickback for helping to advance Lasher and Misuraca more than $800,000 and $500,000 respectively.

The matter will be back in court on November 22 to set a trial date for a judge-only trial, which will be slated to take two weeks.

White said she will be asking the trial coordinator to find the first two weeks available to get the trial started again.