Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Kettle Valley Steam Railway
November 26, 2024 - 10:34 AM
The former business manager of the Kettle Valley Steam Railway in Summerland has pleaded guilty to fraud.
Today, Nov. 26, Julia Beatrice Belmonte appeared in a Penticton courtroom and pleaded guilty to a single charge of fraud over $5,000.
No details regarding the fraud were given but court records show the fraud took place between July 2021 and December 2022.
It took more than a year for charges to be laid, but in March 2023 police raided her West Kelowna and found hundreds of items she'd ordered from Amazon with her work credit card.
Belmonte was then charged with fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000.
It's thought that Belmonte, born 1997, defrauded the not-for-profit business of more than $50,000.
The exact amount isn't known, but information from an RCMP search warrant was published by the Penticton Herald last year.
READ MORE: Former District of Summerland staffer guilty of fraud and breach of trust
The Herald reported that Belmonte used the society's credit card and spent $13,000 on Amazon purchases, buying a mattress, ski equipment, jewelry and underwear, among other things. She then had it shipped to her home.
The rest of the money was taken using e-transfers for unapproved overtime pay and an unauthorized pay rise. She also pocketed cash from operations which she was meant to put in the bank.
She was making $60,000 a year, but in December 2022 handed the books over to the society and then failed to show up to work.
Belmonte doesn't appear to have a criminal record in BC, and no civil actions have been taken against her.
She will be back in court in the new year for sentencing.
The Kettle Valley Railway Society's steam train is a popular tourist attraction which travels 16 kilometres high in the Okanagan hills in a restored 1912 steam locomotive.
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