A Richmond soccer mom who embezzled more than $200,000 from the local youth soccer club has been sentenced to two years in prison for her crimes.
Between 1998 and 2003, Debbie Judd served as the treasurer and chairwoman for Richmond Youth Soccer Association. During that time, she had control over the club's finances and wrote 106 cheques made out to herself, her husband or "cash."
Judd claimed that the cheques were reimbursements for money she had paid on behalf of the soccer club, and tricked fellow board members into signing off on the expenses by showing them stubs filled in with phony information. The stolen amounts escalated over time, from $13,401 misappropriated in 1998 to $78,139 in 2003.
Besides sentencing Judd to prison time in a hearing on Monday, provincial court Judge Patrick Chen ordered her to pay back all of the $204,070 she stole from the club.
In his decision, Chen wrote that Judd's crimes were more serious than those committed by employees who defraud their bosses.
"The RYSA was not a sophisticated business entity with systems of checks and balances, designed to protect its financial affairs. It is a volunteer organization and was highly dependent on the accused to act honestly with their money. The real victims were the thousands of young people who would have benefitted greatly from the monies the accused stole," Chen wrote.
He said that the money Judd stole allowed her to maintain a lifestyle her family otherwise wouldn't have been able to enjoy.
"Were it not for the money the accused took from the RYSA, her family would have been deeply in debt," Chen wrote.
When the soccer club began to suspect something untoward was going on, they appointed a new treasurer, Andrew Dunham, who uncovered the embezzlement and called in the RCMP.
Dunham wrote a victim impact statement for the court, putting Judd's thefts into perspective.
"That is a lot of soccer balls, uniforms, equipment and training and development programs. To put it in context, for the 2003/2004 playing season, we spent $21,500 on equipment and $10,900 on training and development. By 2006 once the "leakage" of funds was stopped, we were able to double our spending on equipment and on training programs," Dunham wrote.
His wife, Cheryl Dunham, wrote in a separate statement that the misappropriations left the cash-strapped club struggling to raise extra funds through tournaments, concession stands and a new spring program.
"Even with the running of a spring program we were still short of funds and as a result we were bouncing cheques," she wrote.
Crown prosecutors had asked for Judd to spend as much as three years in jail, but Chen wrote that she deserved some leniency in consideration of the facts that she has a seven-year-old and has lived an otherwise law-abiding life.
The judge pointed out that local media coverage of Judd's crimes has had a massive impact on her family.
"She and her husband, John Judd, have lost their friendship with people in RYSA. Their children have borne insults and negative comments from former friends and associates in the community," Chen wrote.
The family moved to Alberta so that John could work as a soccer coach there, but he lost his job in December after his employers learned about the charges against his wife and he believes he will never be allowed to coach in that province again. Judd had been working as an executive assistant at a university since the move to Alberta.
