Ex-Service Canada employee sentenced to 18 months for stealing $180K from seniors

A former Service Canada employee has been sentenced to 18 months in prison plus one year of probation for stealing nearly $180,000 in unclaimed seniors benefits.

Bonnie Lo worked as a payment services officer for nearly a decade, giving her access to sensitive databases where she could see client information, change direct deposit details, and reissue or redirect benefit payments. Between 2012 and 2016, she used that access to deposit Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan benefits that had not been claimed by their intended recipients into her own bank account. She diverted a total of 176 payments worth $179,689.80.

Court of King's Bench Justice Kathryn Oviatt rejected Lo's request to serve time in the community on house arrest, saying her crimes require incarceration. "Ms. Lo stole old age security and pension benefits from some of Canada's most vulnerable," Oviatt wrote in the July 9 decision. "Although the taxpayer ultimately paid the price, there was a real likelihood that the fraud resulted in delayed payments, uncertainty, and the burden of vulnerable Canadians having to establish their entitlement to funds that were fraudulently diverted."

Oviatt noted that the harm extended beyond financial loss because the crime erodes public confidence in critically important public institutions. Lo pleaded guilty to fraud and breach of trust by a public officer. She was discovered in 2018 after a client reported that previously issued CPP cheques had already been cashed.

Lo had a prior 2014 conviction for fraud and forgery that resulted in a nine-month conditional sentence. Despite that earlier conviction, she continued to offend during the years covered by the current case, which Oviatt cited as an aggravating factor.