Woman sentenced to house arrest for stealing from employer

“Deprivation of your liberty is necessary”

Magistrate Kristy-Ann Gunn

(CMR) Donna Ann Rankin (53) appeared in court on Monday to be sentenced for stealing over $2,300 from her employer. She was spared a jail sentence after her attorney John Furniss shared with the court that the second time offender was the sole caretaker for an elderly mother and teenage child. Instead, Magistrate Kristy-Ann Gunn sentenced her to house arrest requiring her to wear an ankle bracelet for six months.

She had paid back some of the money and the outstanding amount was $1,969.50. Rankin appeared in the defendant's box visibly upset and crying.

The court heard how the defendant has previously stolen back in 2011 and was given a suspended sentence in 2013 which has since been spent. Magistrate Gunn explained that in the eyes of the law nothing is ever spent and the breach of trust for a second time was a serious matter.

The facts were that Rankin was responsible for collecting payments from customers as part of her job. She would then issue then a receipt and make the bank deposit. However, on this occasion, she kept the money instead of doing the full deposit. The theft was discovered only after the company attempted to chase up the payment from the client who provided his receipt as proof of payment.

Initially, Rankin denied the theft but then made some admissions to the police. She claimed that her family in Honduras were losing their home and she took the money to assist them.

Gunn explained to her that seconder time offender for breach of trust felling into a Category A which is a breach of the highest degree. However, the amount taken was not particularly high and that was placed as a category 3(a) offense. The magistrate explained that she should be facing a jail sentence given the aggravating factor of having a prior offense on her record.

Despite that she took into consideration her guilty plea and the fact that she had an elderly mom and dependent child in her household. The magistrate told her “you've put their welfare in jeopardy by your actions”. Referring to this mitigating factors the magistrate decided that her freedom should still be curtailed in some way despite not sentencing her to a term of imprisonment. Using the Alternative Sentencing Act she placed on on a daily curfew to be monitored by an electronic monitoring device.

The starting point for the offense was 12 months with a 1/3 reduction for her guilty plea. Since she was doing the sentence via a curfew order the 5.3 months of jail time was increased to 6 months of home curfew from 6:00 pm until 8:00 am. A compensation order was also issued for the outstanding money owed and must be paid by July 29, 2022 or she would face three months imprisonment.

She was left with a stern warning: