Three years in jail for Wakaw bank fraudster

While she submitted a three-year sentencing suggestion to Justice G.A. Meschishnick, defence lawyer Peter Abrametz was hoping for a community-based sentence.

Meschishnick instead opted to give the maximum sentence calling the thefts a serious breach of trust.

“When the victim is vulnerable, the court must give priority to denunciation,” he said, adding that Venne preyed upon the vulnerable.

One of her victims, who had dementia, had $432,000 taken from their bank account. Two others were robbed of $100,000 each and the remaining thefts were among the remaining eight victims.

The victims have been reimbursed and Conexus’ insurance company is now looking to recover the stolen money from Venne. All restitution is to be paid to the company with order including interest that would have been earned.

Watching from the public gallery was 94-year-old Stella Holinaty and her son, who both gave victim impact statements.

The Holinaty’s were blunt in their words, which they spoke to Venne, who did not look at them.

“You’re the sleaziest scum on the bottom of the barrel,” said Stella. “I trusted you; I thought you were my friend, and this is what you turned out to be.”

Her son Duane had equally harsh words and said the court case took too long to finish and the fact that she ended up pleading guilty was of little help.

“You prolonged the suffering of my mom and all the victims,” he said. He suggested she was drawing out the court procedure to see if more of the victims would die before it was resolved. His mother is not the same person she once was.

“You stole her confidence. She can’t trust people,” Duane said. “She trusted you as a friend, how mistaken she was.”

He finished by saying that Venne’s family in Wakaw are also paying the price for her misdeeds and the family’s reputation has suffered in the small community.

Stella asked Venne to look at her on at least one occasion, but Venne did not turn around, not even when she said she was sorry.

“I’m very, very sorry,” Venne said. She also called her own actions a mistake and said she is ashamed.

When citing his reasons for the time in jail, Meschishnick said that Venne has destroyed the ability of her victims to trust people.

Some were left wondering if they would be able to pay for their own care and they considered Venne a personal friend, not just their banker.

As they were elderly, many of the victims did not have the ability to use online banking to monitor their own accounts or handle their own transactions.

Meschishnick said that he has some doubt about the sincerity of Venne’s apology, citing her description of her actions as a ‘mistake, rather than the crimes they are’ as an example. That was backed by the pre-sentence report which stated that she has some awareness of the level of wrong that was done but is not fully taking responsibility.

No motive was provided for the theft, which Souter suggested left only the most obvious one of greed. Given that the thefts stretched out over six years, beginning in June 2013 and ending in April 2019, she also called the crimes ‘premeditated and prolonged.’

Souter said that it is only because of the nature of small towns and the high level of trust that people place in their banks that Venne was able to get away with the fraud as long as she did.

“It’s not frequent and working with the financial institution, it’s clear that they have many, many safeguards in place,” she said. “It was just because of Ms. Venne’s personal relationship with some of the individuals she defrauded that she was able to bypass the security measures that are in place to prevent these types of crimes.”

Representatives of Conexus were also at the sentencing and gave victim impact statements.

“This person has caused a ripple effect on the wider Conexus employees,” they read aloud. “Her conduct will leave a lasting impact.”

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com

by Susan McNeil

Three years in jail for Wakaw bank fraudster

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