Half-million dollar fine for Sask. fraudster upheld by Court of Appeal

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal sided with a sentencing judge this summer, keeping in place a $538,264.20 fine for a woman who defrauded clients and banks for close to $1 million.

According to court documents, Natasha Audrey Dixon pleaded guilty to 16 charges in Regina provincial court, including identity theft, fraud, use of forged documents and impersonation.

She had gone to three banks across Western Canada between July 2022 and October 2023, posed as existing clients and withdrew $907,992. The court heard she had set up a complex array of accounts to convert the stolen money into cryptocurrency and hide it.

After she was arrested, police were able to recover $369,727.80, but the remaining $538,264.20 was never found. The decision from the Court of Appeal said Dixon didn’t help police in their efforts to recover the money.

She was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $538,264.20 in lieu of forfeiture – a remedy judges can use when stolen goods or the proceeds of crime can’t be easily forfeited. That fine has to be paid in a prescribed amount of time, and if it’s not paid, the offender would incur a jail sentence of between three and five years.

Dixon didn’t appeal the sentence, but did appeal the fine. Her lawyer argued that the judge erred by finding he had no choice but to impose the fine, and didn’t give enough weight to the Gladue factors at play in her case. Those factors require the courts to take into account the background and circumstances of indigenous offenders.

The provincial court judge found he couldn’t decline to levy a fine even if Dixon couldn’t pay it, but he did give her the maximum amount of time to pay the fine and ordered that she would serve the shortest possible amount of time if she didn’t pay it.

The appeals court’s decision agreed with the sentencing judge, saying there was no discretion for him to reduce the amount of the fine, and that Gladue factors had no bearing on that determination.

Among its reasons, the appeals court also noted that Dixon could well have the money to pay the fine hidden somewhere.

It said the purpose of this type of fine is to make sure that no one benefits from committing a crime.

“The approach advocated by Ms. Dixon in this appeal would effectively recognize that there are circumstances in which crime does pay,” read the appeals court decision.

“In neutral terms, it would reward offenders who obtain proceeds of crime by allowing them to spend or retain those proceeds for their own material benefit, which is directly contrary to the two purposes of the forfeiture regime enacted under Part XII.2 of the Criminal Code.”

The majority opinion was written by Chief Justice Robert W. Leurer and Justice Neal W. Caldwell.

The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Naheed Bardai, agreed Dixon’s appeal should be dismissed, and only disagreed on the determination that Gladue factors should not be taken into account in a fine determination.