BY KEITH LACEY
A bookkeeper who stole almost $400,000 from his employer over a four-year period will find out what his punishment will be in April.
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Francois (Frank) Pelletier, 36, pleaded guilty Monday to fraud over $5,000 and admitted to embezzling and defrauding huge sums of money between the beginning of November 1998 and early April 2002, when he was fired.
Pelletier worked as a bookkeeper for a numbered company that owns GloriaÂ?s Restaurant, GloriaÂ?s Video and A and J Home Hardware, three businesses located in the Regency Mall on Bouchard Street in SudburyÂ?s South End. The businesses are owned by the Michel family.
Bruno Michel told Northern Life PelletierÂ?s actions devastated his family as they had serious cash flow problems for several years and they finally know why.
Justice Louise Gauthier of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered a pre-sentence report prepared by a probation officer before Pelletier, who has no previous criminal record, is sentenced.
Assistant Crown attorney Len Walker read in an agreed statement of facts to the court Monday.
Walker told the court Bruno Michel and his sister confronted Pelletier about financial information on April 1, 2002. After finding information inaccurate, they decided to fire him.
Three days later, with the help of the companyÂ?s other bookkeeper, the family uncovered some fraudulent transactions concerning PelletierÂ?s paycheques. The next day, the family placed a complaint to Greater Sudbury Police.
The police fraud unit informed the family that Pelletier had confessed he had embezzled funds from the business.
Pelletier admitted to stealing from payroll, rents paid in cash and debit card withdrawals from the business account.
The family then looked into every file for all monthly bank statements and over a 50-month period beginning in March 1998 and ending in April 2000, could only find six monthly statements, said Walker.
The bank was contacted and an investigation revealed the first unauthorized transaction made by Pelletier was on July 7, 1998 and the last one the same day he was fired.
During this time period, Pelletier made approximately 730 unauthorized transactions for personal purchases or cash withdrawals totalling $312,950, said Walker.
There were approximately 120 "questionable" transactions made at office supply stores totaling just under $41,000.
All of this information was delivered to police.
The assistant bookkeeper, in a police statement, said she met Pelletier after being hired by the Michel family.
She and Pelletier had a decent working relationship, but Pelletier was "pretty quiet and kept to himself. When it came to our jobs, Frank was the person I went to for any answers on how to prepare entries I was unsure of, or any questions on payroll."
Pelletier made most of the decisions on what was going on in all of the companies and the family relied on his advice, she said.
After Pelletier was fired, she took over his position and helped in the investigation after Pelletier had turned himself into police.
On PelletierÂ?s own company information, there was often no indication of rate of pay. She found discrepancies in his hours worked and rate of pay, she said.
The investigation revealed Pelletier often paid himself excessive amounts and a great deal of that money was free and clear of all deductions for employment insurance, Canada Pension and income tax, said Walker.
The investigation revealed Pelletier paid himself an additional $52,000 over four years. None of the $370,000 has been recovered, said Walker.
