Ex-union director admits to fraud but judge to decide how much

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This article was published 12/12/2018 (1953 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former union director and adviser to former premier Greg Selinger admits her gambling addiction caused her to head straight to the VLTs after leaving his office for the day.

A sentencing hearing for Heather Grant-Jury, who has pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000, began Thursday.

The Crown accuses Grant-Jury of taking $160,000 from the United Food and Commercial Workers education and training trust fund.

But Grant-Jury claims she defrauded the union of $66,000 and has paid back $10,000.

Provincial court Judge Ryan Rolston will determine which amount is correct.

The Crown alleges the fraud went on from 2011 to 2015, with Grant-Jury racking up thousands of dollars in purchases of gift cards, groceries, picture framing and giftware — expenses that weren’t for the training centre.

Grant-Jury was fired by the union in January 2016.

Beatrice Bruske, the union’s secretary treasurer, told court on Thursday that when Grant-Jury was confronted with the allegations in December 2015, she “was very upset.

“She said it hasn’t been since I began working here, but I became addicted to gambling two years ago,” Bruske said under questioning by Crown attorney Don Melnyk.

“She said she had been to counselling twice… no one knows, not any family or friends.

“I would leave Selinger’s office and go to the Norwood and play the VLTs,” Bruske quoted Grant-Jury as saying.

“She said she would pay it all back,” Bruske testified.

Bruske said the union did find some of the credit card charges were made while Grant-Jury was working for Selinger from Nov. 2014, to April 7, 2015.

Grant-Jury had been seconded from the union to serve as the premier’s principal secretary after five key cabinet ministers staged a revolt against Selinger.

During the sentencing, Bruske confirmed that Grant-Jury used her union-issued credit card to spend $31,000 at Safeway in 2013.

Bruske said when Grant-Jury submitted expenses, she would tear off the top itemized portion of a bill so it showed only the total amount paid.

Until that method of submitting expenses was brought to Bruske’s attention, the union didn’t realize there was a problem with trust fund expenditures. She said an outside auditor checked the books annually, but never flagged that.

She said in many cases there is no way of knowing what was purchased or which store or restaurant had issued many of the gift cards. She explained that’s due to changes with cash register systems at some stores and because some of the purchases were made at small gift shops that didn’t track purchases of individual items.

Under questioning by defence lawyer Zilla Jones, Bruske realized some of the expenses involved items that were likely used in a gift basket Grant-Jury had put together, on behalf of the union, for a Manitoba Federation of Labour auction. These included purchases at the Body Shop and Thermea Spa.

“There could be other ones like that which could slip your mind,” Jones pointed out to Bruske, who replied that she had cross-referenced other purchases with the training centre class schedule.

Bruske said she found that when there was a purchase of groceries at Safeway or Food Fare, on a day there was a training class, that there was also a payment to a restaurant or catering company to deliver lunch to the participants.

The sentencing continues Friday.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca