Fake nurse Brigitte Cleroux apologizes in court

Serial nurse impersonator Brigitte Cleroux stood in court and apologized on the final day of her sentencing hearing in Vancouver, saying she felt shame and remorse for what she had done.

"I wish the victims to heal and apologize for being involved in their care when I shouldn't have," said Cleroux, dressed in all black and reading from a white notepad.

"I recognize me practising as an unlicensed nurse causes damage to the medical system because the patients deserve to be cared for by licensed medical professionals. Only then can they feel safe," she said.

The 52-year-old pleaded guilty in July to 11 charges, including fraud, forgery, impersonation, theft, assault and assault with a weapon related to health-care jobs she obtained in B.C. between 2019 and 2021 using stolen, forged and falsified credentials.

Cleroux, who has at least 67 criminal convictions going back to 1988, was previously convicted for similar crimes related to nurse impersonation in Alberta, Quebec and Ontario. 

She also admitted to faking credentials to get hired as a school teacher in Alberta and has outstanding warrants in Florida and Colorado.

Sentencing set for Dec. 20

Associate Chief Justice Heather J. Holmes has reserved her sentencing decision until Dec. 20 at 10 a.m. 

Crown prosecutor Alex Burton asked that Cleroux receive eight years to be served consecutively to the seven-year jail term she is currently serving in Ontario for impersonating a nurse at two Ottawa facilities. The Ontario crimes took place shortly after she left B.C.

Defence counsel Guillaume Garih is asking for a five- to six-year term to be served concurrently with her Ontario sentence. 

Cleroux's B.C. crimes began when she was hired as a dental assistant at a Surrey dental clinic in 2019 while still on parole from her Alberta convictions.

In June 2020, she was hired as a sedation and general duty nurse at B.C. Women's Hospital, where she worked for approximately one year.

While at B.C. Women's, she also worked for about a month at the private View Royal Surgical Centre in Victoria.

Cleroux used the stolen identity and nursing registration number of a real nurse to apply for the Vancouver and Victoria jobs. 

The name of the real nurse is now under a publication ban. Burton noted the impact on the real nurse telling the court she was on maternity leave when Cleroux began impersonating her and only came to learn about her identity being stolen when the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives issued an alert that she was fraudulently passing herself off as a nurse. 

No significant history of mental disorders

A presentencing psychiatric report said Cleroux has no significant history of major mental disorders but showed anti-social, narcissistic and histrionic personality traits. 

"She is persistently deceitful, lacks remorse or empathy, repeatedly engages in unlawful behaviour, is entitled and grandiose ... and is overly concerned with status and her appearance," said the report. "Cleroux also seems to have a lack of insight or self-awareness."

Defence counsel Guillaume Garih suggested that documents from earlier convictions indicated that Cleroux may have attended nursing school at one point in her life.

However, Justice Holmes expressed skepticism, citing a lack of evidence and Cleroux's long history of lying about credentials.

Garih said while Cleroux's actions led to psychological suffering on behalf of some she treated, there was no record in the agreed statement of fact that any of her patients had suffered physical harm.

Cleroux was involved in the treatment of about 900 patients during her year at B.C. Women's Hospital, and approximately another 50 at the Victoria clinic.