Former soccer executive to be sentenced in May
It's taken the better part of a decade, but finally justice is just three months away for a local sports group and its members.
The former president of the Richmond Youth Soccer Association is scheduled to be sentenced in May, more than seven years after the association alerted the authorities about $180,000 that had gone unaccounted for.
Debbie Judd was charged in June of 2009 with fraud, theft over $5,000 and multiple counts of uttering forged documents.
Crown counsel Mark Rankin told The Richmond Review Monday that Judd is expected to enter a guilty plea on Friday, May 6 and that she'll be sentenced on the same day by Richmond provincial court Judge Ron Fratkin.
While he hasn't yet researched or decided on what type of sentence to request, and whether that will involve jail time, Rankin said he will be asking "first and foremost" for a restitution order.
The money's disappearance wasn't noticed until late in 2003, and then in early 2004, Richmond Mounties were called in to investigate.
Judd had previously served as both chair and treasurer of the association for nearly a decade.
The missing money was related to the association's activities between 1998 and 2003, but since the incident, new measures have been implemented to ensure there isn't a repeat.
Back in December of 2003, Judd was reached for comment and said: "We are getting some advice here, because people haven't dotted their 'i's and crossed their 't's. And so it's like I said, it's something that's really sensitive and I can't comment on it right now."
At the time the money was found missing, the association had an annual budget of $175,000 and organized games and tournaments for 1,600 boys.
A call to defense counsel Mike Steinbach was not immediately returned.
—Martin van den Hemel
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