WATCH: A youth football club in the Comox Valley was set to be in small claims court Friday, defending itself against its former treasurer who stole over $100,000 from the club over a decade ago. Gloria May Rickson repaid most of it back then but now she’s suing the organization to get some of the money back.
It’s a story CHEK News first reported on in 2010 after the RCMP revealed it had laid theft charges against Gloria May Rickson who had been the longtime treasurer of the Comox Valley Raiders Youth Football Club. She had already reached a private agreement with the Raiders to repay $110,000 of the nearly $133,000 the club said she had stolen between 2005 and 2009.
She ended up pleading guilty to theft over $5,000 and received a 12 month suspended sentence.
A confidentiality agreement prevents most people in the club from talking about the deal but word got to Rickson’s employer the Comox Valley School District and she was fired.
Then last year Rickson sued the Raider’s former president Rick Levigne for $300,000 in lost wages, stress and public embarrassment, saying he’d breached that confidentiality agreement. She settled for $5,900 in small claims court instead.
Now she’s suing the club saying she overpaid the Raiders when she repaid that $110,000.
She’s claiming $35,000, which is the maximum in small claims court.
“This woman seems to have no guilt, no remorse and no shame,” said Barb Callander.
“She imagines herself a victim because she was caught and she’s facing consequences.”
Callander isn’t mincing words. She was hired by the Raiders as a contractor to get the books in order back in 2010 when it looked like money was missing.
We reached out to Gloria Rickson’s lawyer Eric Chesterley on Wednesday but did not get a response before deadline.
The case was supposed to go to trial Friday morning in Courtenay but the case has now been settled out of court. No details about the settlement were immediately available.
Dean Stoltz
