A Sudbury bookkeeper accused of ripping off a siding installation company she did the books for has decided to have her trial held in front of a judge and jury.
Rita Collalti, 52, was charged earlier this year with writing bad cheques and trying to misappropriate $120,000 between March of 2000 and September of 2001 from a Sudbury siding company.
The Crown contends Collalti committed 30 illegal transactions and took all the misappropriated money to spend on herself and her family.
A preliminary hearing started Thursday against Collalti. Her lawyer James Longstreet said his client wishes to have the trial heard before a judge and jury in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Justice William Fitzgerald ordered a publication ban on all evidence presented at the preliminary hearing.
The Crown alleges the accused took two blank cheques from the owner of the siding company and 18 cheques from the siding company?s boss. She signed the cheques over to herself and used them for her own purposes.
The Crown was expected to call at witnesses the company owner, a certified general accountant and handwriting expert from the Centre of Forensic Sciences at the preliminary hearing.
