Brandy Karen Dawn Ritchie appears in this 2017 photo.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Brandy Ritchie

How a 40-year-old West Kelowna woman managed to obtain someone else's working debit card along with a matching ID isn't known.

But 40-year-old Brandy Karen Dawn Ritchie did just that.

She also must have looked similar to the person whose card it was because in November 2022, Ritchie walked into the CIBC branch in Armstrong and got a bank draft for $25,000 with her fraudulently obtained debit card and ID.

She took the bank draft, which was written out in her name, drove to Enderby and put it in her bank account. She withdrew $7,800 and returned later that day to take out another $5,000.

Two days later her account was frozen when the banks realized something wasn't right.

The bank customer who lost the money felt "disdain and outrage" when they found out, but the bank did credit them back. The customer wasn't local and lives in Ontario.

Six months later Ritchie was charged with fraud.

Today, at the Vernon courthouse she pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000, personation with intent to gain advantage, and breaching bail. Her guilty pleas are a mere fraction of the amount of charges she was facing.

Appearing at the courthouse from custody, she spent much of the court proceedings wiping tears from her eyes.

No details were given about how Ritchie managed to obtain the debit card and ID, or under what circumstances she was arrested.

However, by early 2024 Ritchie and her co-accused Gregory Mackenzie Calder, in one case, racked up more than 20 charges for fraud and identity theft in Richmond. Police at the time said the pair had driver's licences, birth certificates, Social Insurance Number cards, potentially forged credit cards and forged store membership cards.

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However, all the Richmond charges, except for breaching bail, were stayed by the Crown. Calder also had his charges stayed, and as is protocol, no reason was given for why the Crown wasn't proceeding. Separately, Calder also faces 20 charges for bank fraud in different towns across Alberta.

While Ritchie likely had help in obtaining the fake documents, she is the only person charged in connection with the Armstrong fraud.

Having been arrested, Ritchie was released on bail and picked up after being caught on the SkyTrain in New Westminster without a ticket. She was found to have fake identification documents on her, and again no explanation for how she obtained them was given.

She appears to have moved around BC a bit as her one breach of probation was in Merritt.

The court heard Ritchie grew up in Alberta and her mother was 15 years old when she was born. Her grandfather had survived residential school where he was physically and sexually abused. That trauma had been passed down to Ritchie's father and to her.

She first took LSD at age 12 and struggled with substance use for years although also spent periods clean and sober. She has two children aged 17 and nine and a partner of 20 years.

The court heard she had a diploma in business and worked as an executive assistant for many years.

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However, her partner had kicked her out when she started using drugs again, a situation triggered by the death of her mother and soon afterwards, her stepfather.

Then homeless and desperate, she committed the fraud.

The court heard Ritchie had since reconciled with her partner and she would go back to live with him once out of jail.

"I ran away and I fell really hard," Ritchie told the court. "I'm trying to stay in a healthy state of mind... I know how to do life."

Crown prosecutor James Bagan argued Ritchie should spend 12 to 18 months in jail for the fraud, while defence lawyer James Wu argued for house arrest.

BC Provincial Court Judge David Patterson said Ritchie had high moral blameworthiness.

"It took some planning," the judge said. "She obviously had the knowledge to get the cards and ID and an understanding of how banks work... this is high value fraud."

However, the judge highlighted Ritchie's Indigenous upbringing saying it was "outrageous" how 42% of women in prison were Indigenous, but they were only 6% of the population.

This is not getting a lesser sentence but getting an appropriate sentence, the judge said.

Ultimately, as Ritchie had already spent more than six months in prison, and agreed to counselling, she was given a sentence of seven months house arrest.

The judge declined to order Ritchie to pay the money back as it wasn't clear which bank had lost out. He said if the bank wanted the money they could sue her.

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