Ex-civil servant gets 4 years for defrauding Sask. government

A former welfare administrator has been sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding the Saskatchewan government after more than $1 million went missing from thedepartment where she worked.

Evelyn Hynes, 56, who worked in the Department of Community Resources and Employment in Saskatoon, was also ordered to pay back the money she stole.

Hynes pleaded guiltyin a Saskatoon courtroom on Wednesday. She had been charged with fraud over $5,000.

In court today, she apologized for stealing more than $1 millionby writing cheques to fictitious welfare recipients and cashing them herself. She saidshe is especially sorry for her family and colleagues.

Last year, Hynes lost her jobas a manager responsible for administering welfare payments after an audit revealed that more than $1 million had disappeared from the department over a 10-year period.

Hynes was chargedfollowing an investigation into the finances of the department, which began after a complaint about the missing money was made to police in late 2004.

Crown and defence lawyers arguedin a joint submission Wednesdaythat she should receive a sentence of four years in prison and repay at least some of the money.

AlthoughHynes was ordered to pay the money back, the Crown has said they can't find any assets or money saved from the money she stole.

Convicted in 1980s

Hynes was convicted in the 1980s of defrauding a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce branch in Newfoundland of more than $600,000.

Working as an assistant loans manager in Corner Brook, she made up phoney clients and bogus loans over a six-year period. She was sentenced to two years in jail but was later pardoned.

After getting out of jail and becoming a social worker, she moved to Saskatoon, rising through the ranks of the provincial government to become a middle-level manger.

Government officials did not check Hynes's criminal record when they hired her in 1989.