(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - A woman well known to police will spend six months in jail after betraying a woman who invited her into her home for Christmas dinner.

Karla Kenney's Martin Avenue home was broken into, things stolen, her house ransacked, including the senseless destruction of sentimental personal belongings between Dec. 23, 2015, and Jan. 14, 2016, when Kenney was out of town working. While the homeless woman she shared an early Christmas dinner with was found not guilty of the break and enter due to a lack of evidence, Cortni Isabel Ruth Aitchison, 35, was found guilty of two counts of possessing her stolen property, including Kenney's vehicle, in Penticton Provincial Court today, April 1.

Kenney said she offered Aithchison an early Christmas dinner and Aitchison used the opportunity to case her home and take advantage of her.

“I think she was caught in my car with some of my stuff, it was inevitable she did it,” Kenney said. “This is a huge violation - my whole life is gone. Six months is not appropriate."

Among the damage, two urns containing the ashes of her mother and step-mother were dumped and scattered through the home.

Judge Gale Sinclair said the case against Aitchison was “rife with suspicion and probability” that Aitchison was directly responsible for the break in and said Aitchison's story of being in the stolen car, which contained effects from Kenney’s break in, “defied all logic,” but added the case was not proven beyond reasonable doubt. 

Aitchison told court she had been asked to drive the vehicle, along with two people she was with, after they stopped at another man’s house. The vehicle ended up in a Tim Horton's parking lot on Jan. 4 where it was discovered by police with Aitchison at the wheel.

Judge Sinclair said he "rejected the evidence of the accused as untrue,“ pronouncing her guilty on two counts of possession of stolen property.

Crown Prosecutor Nashina Devji told court Aitchison had five previous convictions for breaches and property theft, calling the incident particularly aggravating because the victim had welcomed Aitchison into her home for Christmas dinner prior to the break in because she had nowhere else to go.

She was sentenced to 183 days jail, less time served, with one year probation to follow.

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