Former North Wiltshire CAO sentenced to 90 days for defrauding the rural municipality

A past chief administrative officer of North Wiltshire has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for defrauding the municipality by cashing a cheque she made out to herself.

Tammy Louise White, 44, was the CAO of the rural P.E.I. municipality, about 20 kilometres west of Charlottetown, in December 2024 when she wrote herself a cheque for $4,000.

She was charged last year and pleaded guilty in the fall. The case was adjourned so probation services could update her pre-sentence report.

White was back in court to be sentenced Wednesday morning.

“There’s clearly efforts to downplay her moral culpability,” Crown attorney Samson Brasseur told the judge, noting that White told probation services that the ordeal was a “misunderstanding.”

“I believe in speaking with her there’s a level of shame involved in that,” legal aid lawyer Chris van Ouwerkerk said. “As well as a level of disbelief of the situation she finds herself in.”

The court heard that the municipality was reimbursed by its bank. No restitution request was filed with the court, so no one has asked for White to repay the money, though she does have to pay a $500 victim fine surcharge.

One wonders how she can get in a position of trust like this with the record she would have had.- Judge Jeff Lantz

White was also serving an 18-month sentence in the community for possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking at the time she was the CAO.

“One wonders how she can get in a position of trust like this with the record she would have had at the time,” Judge Jeff Lantz said in court.

CBC News reached out to the Rural Municipality of North Wiltshire but has not received a response.

Her lawyer had asked that White be allowed to serve her sentence in the community, as she did with her previous drug sentence, but Lantz said no.

”She broke the trust of a community,” he said.

White will be allowed to serve her 90-day sentence on weekends so she can care for her children through the week.