BY KEITH LACEY
Sudbury?s Crown attorney?s office will be seeking a lengthy jail sentence against a former public school board employee who pleaded guilty to
defrauding his employers.
Allan Spisak, a former assistant manager of plant maintenance for the Rainbow District School Board, will be sentenced June 16.
Spisak, 43, quit his job of 12 years with the board after being confronted with fraud allegations.
He pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with another man on a complicated scheme in which school board invoices and work orders were paid out to a fictitious company formed by Spisak and his accomplice.
Steven Fleming, who did not work for the school board, has been arrested in the United States in connection with the case and extradition
proceedings are underway. He?s expected to be turned over to Canadian police authorities in the near future.
Spisak pleaded guilty to allegations that between September 2000 and May 2003, he was involved in defrauding the school board of $308,000.
He moved to southern Ontario after quitting his job, but turned himself over to Greater Sudbury Police soon after they decided to lay charges
following a nine-month forensic audit.
In reading in an agreed statement of fact, assistant Crown attorney Andrew Slater told the court purchase orders and invoices were sent to the school board saying certain work had been completed at different schools. Cheques would be issued for work that was never completed to Spisak?s fake company.
The forensic audit discovered more than $150,000 was paid out to a fictitious contracting company called FMF Contracting.
A total of 87 false work orders and 78 false invoices billed to the school board by Spisak?s phoney company were revealed through the forensic audit, said Slater.
Spisak?s ?non-existent company? at one point hired three high school students to do work at a school and paid them $600, but Spisak billed the school board for $7,200, said Slater.
The second part of the scheme involved paying out funds from the school board to Sudbury and area contractors, said Slater.
Spisak hired contractors to deal with his fictitious company rather than directly with the school board, said Slater. He then charged the board for work at a higher rate than he paid the contractors.
The Crown is not in a position to know how much of the $308,000 defrauded from the school board ended up with Spisak or his accomplice, said Slater.
The forensic auditor did comment in a final report Spisak?s ?net worth increased significantly? during this time period, said Slater.
The Crown will be seeking a stand-alone restitution order in the amount of $100,000 against Spisak.
Slater told Northern Life he would be seeking a reformatory sentence in the provincial system, meaning he won?t be asking for a penitentiary term of more than two years.
Defence counsel Richard Pharand told the court Spisak has no previous criminal record and asked Justice Gerald Michel of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that a pre-sentence report be prepared by a probation officer.
Michel ordered such a report to be completed before Spisak is sentenced.
It?s expected Pharand will ask the court to impose a conditional sentence to be served in the community with harsh restrictions on Pharand?s freedom.
Spisak remains free on the conditions of his bail order until sentencing.
Diane Cayen-Arnold, chief financial officer for Rainbow District School Board, issued a statement about Spisak?s plea of guilt, saying she couldn?t say much as he?s still facing a sentencing hearing.
?When this matter came to light, we conducted a thorough review of our procedures. As a result of this review, additional checks and balances
have been implemented,? she said.
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