Postponed sentencing for daycare scammer

The former director of a daycare centre in Town of Mount Royal, who pleaded guilty last November of defrauding $225,000 over five years and is currently employed at a daycare centre in Ile Bizard/Ste. Geneviève, will not be given her sentence until April, she heard at a court session earlier this afternoon.

"I really want to apologize for what I did," a tearful Jeany Tsitsos told Judge Jean B. Falardeau, her back turned to the audience in a courtroom at the Palais de Justice in downtown Montreal. "I didn't mean to hurt anybody. I don't know what else to say," she added. "Please, please let me serve my sentence in the community. It will never happen again.”

Citing the voluminous amount of documentation he received during the session, including various letters by personal acquaintances of Tsitsos submitted by defence lawyer Diane Chartier, Falardeau said he could not render a sentence today and agreed with defence and prosecution to delay it to April 9.

However, Karen Goldfield, Tsitsos' accounting secretary during the years in question, was given a two-year suspended sentence, and told she has to serve 180 hours doing community service.

"I have to consider the aggravating and mitigating circumstances," Falardeau said with regards to his decision.

"It was, in large part, public money (that was defrauded)," he said. "She accepted to work the system," he added.

However, he also recalled Goldfield was not behind the operation, but Tsitsos was. "She benefited from roughly $2,000," he said. "She reimbursed already $97,500."

The court had previously ordered Tsitsos, Goldfield and a third party, the TMR daycare centre's former accountant Réjean Carbonneau, who was not found guilty, to each pay an equal share of the total amount. However, $225,000 was largely paid up by Carbonneau and Goldfield, with Tsitsos now owing them the cash.

"I was told I have to give them the full amount in five years," Tsitsos told crown prosecutor Francis Bossé today when asked if she would be able to pay them back. "I will have (the money)," she added.

Tsitsos also stated her current employer, Garderie Educative Le Petit Castel in Ile Bizard, found out about her troubles with the justice system two weeks after she was hired there.

Prosecution has asked for Tsitsos to serve a year of jail time. The defendant asked for community service instead.