Surrey Police and RCMP officials for financial crimes investigate allegations that a former financial employee of the city of Surrey cheated on the city of more than 2.5 million dollars by lowering hundreds of checks on accounts related to themselves and their boutique cake baking business.
According to a search command obtained from the CBC, which the CBC was not charged, she announced her job in the finance department in January 2024 after asking an apparently fake signature to some paperwork.
This irregularity allegedly led to the discovery of 183 fraudulent checks that were written to the former legal name of the woman, her mother and her side business – to means that have been kept in accounts for years.
“Costening has been committed since 2017”
The court documents stated that the city’s CFO last January called RCMP “to” report that his employees had uncovered fraud within the finance department “.
The CFO CFO CFO Grewal in Surrey City, the woman, “had commanded the woman to search for the woman in March to search for the work in March,” had committed fraud by exploiting her position and cheating on the city of more than 2 million US dollars. “
The woman did not respond to messages that were covered on Wednesday and Thursday on a cell phone connected to her shop, which she identified by name. The business seems to be folded and his website has been put down.
The court documents provide an overview of the Civic deposit process that the woman is suspected of manipulating herself to reward herself.
“The city collects deposits of developers, construction companies and individuals. The deposits will then be returned to them as soon as they have completed their projects and/or meet certain conditions of the city,” says the search command.
“The city collects thousands of deposits every year and some deposits have been in the city for over 20 to 40 years because projects can be delayed, can be left or the company has some other problems.”
Grewal allegedly told the police that the woman had “access to the city databases that made it possible for her to see the details about deposits and made it possible to change the names of the payee for the issuing check.”
“Checked that she didn’t expect”
After the search order, the woman was initially suspended without payment and immediately asked the office on January 25, 2024 after he had confronted the fake.
The following day, when the suspect would normally have taken to the department paid by the accounts to pick up checks, which were written as legitimate deposit returns, an employee of the engineering department was sent in their place.
The replacement clerk “received 2 additional checks that she had not expected” – one to the mother of the suspect and the other for a cake back business.
“It was generally known that (the woman) also had a cake baking business on the side,” says the search command.
“It was also known that she was an enthusiastic player. (She) often spoke about the experiences she had.”
In the next week, the woman sent an e -mail to say that she had immediately resigned effectively. In the following hours she allegedly called the engineering employee, who asked to “bring the two additional checks to the reception so that she could simply pick them up”.
The employee “found this strange”, it says in the court document.
Persecution of changes to accounts
According to the search command, the woman’s supervisory authorities ultimately discovered a total of 183 checks for a total of $ 2,537,599.67, which were advertised between 2017 and 2024 to the three accounts associated with it.
They pursued the unique users -id of the woman to see where she allegedly made changes to addresses and misters that were linked to deposit accounters to carry out the fraud.
In the court documents, a complicated procedure is determined that begins with the assignment of a unique “D supplier” number to every person who leaves a deposit in the city.
In an example cited in the search command, the woman’s user ID was used to include her previous name and current address in a D-Vendor account that is set up for a supplier that gave the city a down payment of $ 9,943.
In other examples, the woman’s user ID was allegedly used to withdraw money from long-term D-Vendor accounts to those who have just been paid out-and the details of these accounts to spend new checks on their cake business or mother.
Last autumn, the police supposedly tried to maintain an audio declaration from the woman of the woman who “seemed quite older due to her appearance and slow movements”.
According to the search command, the woman’s mother informed the officials that she did not want to speak to the police.
The city’s reaction paints a different picture
The city replied to the questions of the CBC on Thursday afternoon after the CBC had been informed that it wanted to organize a story on Friday morning. Instead of reacting directly to the request of the CBC, the city published a media -wide press release.
The publication does not refer to the assertion of the search order that the alleged fraud was discovered due to a random error.
The city claims that the irregularities are in response to the “mandate of the mayor to ensure the tax -responsible government and to secure every taxpayer dollar”.
“After the irregularities were discovered, the city immediately began an internal review and committed external forensic specialists. The matter was also reported to the Surrey RCMP, who carried out a criminal investigation,” said the press release.
“The residents can be sure that decisive steps have been taken to protect public funds and to reclaim the full amount in their name. Since the matter is up to the dishes, the city cannot comment on at that time.”
The city also claims to have initiated legal proceedings that do not name the employees.
None of the allegations contained in the search command were proven in court.
