Chronic con artist facing 399 fraud charges pleads guilty to 1 offence

From 399 charges, down to one: A chronic con artist with a long criminal history in southern Alberta has pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud over $5,000 after admitting she told people she was about to inherit more than $36 million. 

Jane Moore, 45, defrauded Strathmore area victims out of what the Crown says is hundreds of thousands of dollars over an 18-month period in 2016 and 2017. 

Moore plea pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud over $5,000 after negotiations between prosecutor Tony Bell and defence lawyer Craig Leggatt. 

Calgary Court of Queen's Bench Justice Barbara Johnston accepted the plea with sentencing set to wrap up Wednesday after a final victim impact statement is filed.

Both lawyers proposed that on top of the 15 months credit Moore will receive for the time she has already served, she must also spend three months on house arrest, and a further six months probation.

Moore must also pay back $40,000 to five victims.

Criminal history

Moore, who sometimes used the name Jane Seaman, convinced her victims to lend her money by telling them she was about to inherit $38 million.

According to one man, Moore claimed she was waiting for a $36.8-million inheritance from the family of the late Daryl (Doc) Seaman, a former owner of the Calgary Flames who died in 2009.

Moore has a long criminal history, with her first conviction dating back 17 years.

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In 2003, she was handed a suspended sentence and probation for fraud and forging documents.

Since then, she has been convicted of more than 100 similar offences.

In 2010, Moore was sentenced to two years in prison for 77 fraud and theft-related convictions.

Lying began in childhood

A sentencing report from one of her past convictions found Moore has a history of dishonest behaviour dating back to her elementary school days when she began stealing from and lying to classmates.

In the same pre-sentence report, Moore's adoptive parents said their daughter was addicted to prescription pain killers from 1995 to 2005. 

The report suggested Moore should be diagnosed with prominent traits of borderline and antisocial personality disorder.

Another court-ordered evaluation of Moore found she once told people she had leukemia.

The fake cancer was just one of the health lies she told her family. Moore also convinced her family she suffered from a deadly disease that caused bleeding from her eyes and ears. Moore eventually admitted she'd used needles to poke her eye, nose and ears to cause them to bleed.

At one point, Moore was married to a Calgary police officer. During the marriage, which lasted less than a year, she was convicted of impersonating a police officer.