Had two houses but found not guilty of defrauding BC welfare

Community Action, April 14, 2003

VICTORIA -- Income assistance recipient Darlene Lake is not guilty of defrauding the province of almost $34,000, a B.C. Supreme Court jury decided.

The Crown claimed that Lake intentionally defrauded the province of welfare money between Nov. 1996, and May 2001. The charge was that she lied to the Human Resources Ministry about ownership of two Victoria residences in order to collect income assistance benefits.

When one of the residences was sold, Lake bought a $10,000 GIC, again without informing the ministry. She explained that she bought the first residence with her mother's money and that her mother, who lived in Ontario, intended to move there on retirement. She was renting the residence from her mother, she said.

The first home was sold and Lake purchased the GIC because her mother wanted the grandson to have an education fund, Lake testified.

The jury accepted Lake's explanation that she did not intend to defraud the government of $33,656.84 in welfare money.