Lindsay Dawn Purdy has been in custody since her arrest for possession of counterfeit money and counterfeiting equipment Oct. 8, 2013.
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March 20, 2014 - 4:54 PM
KELOWNA – A 27-year-old Kelowna woman was sentenced to six months in jail Thursday for producing and distributing counterfeit currency out of a notorious house in Glenmore.
Lindsay Dawn Purdy has been in custody since her arrest Oct. 8, 2013. She pleaded guilty to counts of shoplifting, possession of counterfeit money and possession of counterfeiting equipment.
Prosecutor Debra Pope told Kelowna Provincial Court Judge Anne Wallace, Purdy was stopped by police while driving when police noticed suspicious bills in her purse. They got a search warrant for her High Road home, already well known to police, Pope said. Inside, they found printers and other counterfeiting equipment as well as bear spray and a pellet gun.
“I find it disturbing that you got picked up for shoplifting then the next day you passed a counterfeit bill,” Wallace said. “I hope you won’t forget how horrible it was (to get off heroin).”
Purdy's already served five-and-a-half months so will only serve two more weeks. She will serve another year on probation, including a mandatory three-month stay in a Surrey addictions centre.
“Miss Purdy and her boyfriend (McDonald) both indicated that she took the lead role (in the production of the fake bills),” Wallace said. She acknowledged Purdy did not make “a huge profit” and was only engaged in the activity to feed her addiction.
Purdy admitted she was addicted to methamphetamines at the age of 16 and to heroin in her mid-20s. She has a seven-year-old daughter, who lives with Purdy’s mother.
“Getting clean has been the most horrible thing she’d ever been through,” said defence lawyer Gavin Jones, who asked for a sentence of time already served.
She is also ordered to write letters of apology within 30 days to victims stuck with her fake cash.
“You’ve got a lot of things going for you,” Wallace said. “It’s going to be up to you to follow this plan.”
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infotelnews.ca, call (250) 718-0428.
News from © iNFOnews, 2014