Sentencing dates are being set in the B.C. case of woman already convicted of posing as a nurse at Ottawa medical and dental clinics and accused of similar B.C. crimes.
Brigitte Cleroux remains in prison in Ontario on a seven-year sentence after pleading guilty to seven charges including assault, assault with a weapon, fraud and impersonation.
She was due in Vancouver Provincial Court June 26 for arraignment but pleas will be taken soon.
Those charges and conviction came after parallel Ottawa Police Service and Vancouver Police Department (VPD) investigations, which alleged the Gatineau, Que. woman posed as a nurse to treat patients in Ontario. She's accused of doing the same in B.C.
In Vancouver, Cleroux faces charges of assault, assault with a weapon, fraud over $5,000, using forged documents and personation with intent to gain advantage. However, there is also civil court action running in tandem with B.C proceedings and completed Ontario ones.
The Vancouver case is currently 567 days old.
Cleroux appeared by phone June 27 before Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Reginald Harris with defence counsel Chris Johnson. The Crown prosecutor is Louise Krivel.
“Ms. Cleroux has a significant criminal history,” Krivel said.
Krivel said June 7 Cleroux was ready to enter pleas, and that an agreed statement of facts is being worked out.
She told Harris three days should be sufficient for a sentencing hearing, including attendance by some of Cleroux’s alleged victims.
“I think some of them want to read their victim impact statements,” Krivel said.
Cleroux remains in Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, Ont. It remains to be seen whether she would be in person in Vancouver for the sentencing. That would be up to the preference of the sentencing judge, Harris said.
Multiple charges in two provinces
The initial charges were approved in November after the VPD launched a months-long investigation. The investigation was spurred by reports of a BC Women’s Hospital employee allegedly fraudulently identifying herself as a nurse between June 2020 and June 2021.
VPD’s Financial Crime Unit found a woman had allegedly fraudulently used the name of a real nurse while providing medical care to patients at the hospital.
Ottawa police began their investigation after being told a woman had used aliases and assumed the identities of registered nurses that she fraudulently obtained. Nursing duties were allegedly carried out by Cleroux at a medical and dental clinic in the nation's capital.
“Some of those duties included the administration of medications, including injections, to patients,” Ottawa police said.
