Lindberg pleads guilty to FFHS theft

Lindberg pleads guilty to FFHS theft
By Peggy Revell

Former FFHS secretary Fawn Lindberg was handed an 18-month conditional sentence here yesterday for stealing more than $300,000 from the high school to feed a gambling addiction.

“My assessment of [Lindberg] is that she is a good woman who lost her way for a time and due to an illness that which engendered her behaviour,” Justice Erwin Stach stated while sentencing Lindberg at the Fort Frances Courthouse after she pleaded guilty.

From June, 2005 to October, 2007, Lindberg stole a total of $312,426.45 through some 146 cheques written to herself or to “cash” from the school’s accounts.

As head secretary, Lindberg was not entitled to issue cheques but a practice had developed wherein the principal and vice-principal at the time, who did have the authority to issue cheques, would authorize them in advance.

At no point did Lindberg either forge or sign the cheques herself.

“I think it’s fair to say that Fawn Lindberg hadn’t planned in advance the series of criminal acts that unfolded under the course of the next couple of years,” Justice Stach said in his ruling.

“Nor was her involvement in it part of a sophisticated scheme that she dreamed up in order to steal money.”

Justice Stach also noted there was “not a hint” that the theft was motivated by greed.

A report by a forensic accountant showed that Lindberg had an expenditure of $340,000 on online gambling “alone,” Justice Stach said.

“There can be no doubt that Fawn Lindberg was afflicted by a serious addiction to gambling,” said Stach, noting he ”attach[es] weight” to the expert opinions brought forward concerning the “incidences and the breadth and the scope” of the pathological gambling disorder Lindberg was diagnosed with.

Since the discovery of the theft, Lindberg has undergone both in-patient and out-patient treatment for the addiction.

But while Lindberg’s conduct was driven by a mental disorder, Justice Stach stressed this does not mean her conduct is not “criminally blameworthy.”
“All here have agreed that it is,” he said.

Under the conditional sentence, Lindberg will be under house arrest for the first nine months—only allowed to leave under certain circumstances (i.e., medical).
The final nine months will see an imposed curfew, followed by a two-year probationary period.

Lindberg also will have to complete 100 hours of community service in these 18 months—beyond the time she currently contributes since she established a local chapter of “Gamblers Anonymous,” a group which now sees, on average, seven-eight people attend on a weekly basis.

It is the only group of its kind for people in the area seeking help with a gambling problem.

“Sending Fawn Lindberg to jail has the potential to disrupt, if not kibosh entirely, the Gamblers Anonymous sessions, which I dare say this community finds some benefit from,” Justice Stach reasoned.

As part of her sentence, Lindberg also is to “abstain absolutely in all gaming/gambling activity,” he added.

Justice Stach said that also contributing to his sentencing decision were the efforts by Lindberg to attempt restitution for the funds she stole.

Under a plan outlined by Lindberg’s legal representation, her OMERS [Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System] pension has been relocated to a local bank.

And as possible under financial law, it will be withdrawn from on a yearly basis until exhausted to pay back the Rainy River District School Board/Ontario School Boards’ Insurance Exchange.

Justice Stach conceded that due to the financial limits of the pension plan (it only holds just over $120,000 in total), it is not a “perfect” restitution but “it is an earnest scheme.”