A woman from the Paq’tnkek First Nation in Afton, Antigonish Co. charged in relation to missing funds has been sentenced.
Antigonish RCMP say they responded to a complaint from band officials in Dec. 2013.
They say they discovered more than $350,000 in misappropriated funds from the Mi’kmaq Employment and Training Secretariat between 2010 and 2013.
Dawn Marie Johnson, a former band office employee, had faced charges of theft over $5,000, fraud over $5,000, uttering a forged document, and forgery; she entered not guilty pleas to all of her charges in Feb. 2015.
Johnson, 41, was committed to stand trial following a preliminary hearing in Antigonish Provincial Court in Nov. 2016; she was expected to stand trial in September.
Instead, she changed her plea to guilty on the forgery count, in the amount of more than $111,000, in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Halifax in August; she had a sentencing hearing in Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Antigonish Monday.
Johnson received an 18-month conditional sentence, which will be served as house arrest, followed by 12 months of probation; she was also ordered to pay restitution of more than $111,000.
Her remaining charges were withdrawn at the hearing.
