A woman facing multiple fraud-related and assault charges in B.C. needs yet another lawyer.
Brigitte Denise Cleroux, 41, is facing 19 charges in Vancouver of assault, assault with a weapon, fraud over $5,000, using forged documents and impersonation with intent to gain advantage.
On Vancouver Island, Cleroux has been charged with fraud over $5,000, impersonation, use of forged documents and assault in connection with a View Royal medical clinic, RCMP confirmed. The alleged offence took place in 2020.
Further, a court information sworn in Surrey April 27 alleges Cleroux defrauded a man of money in excess of $5,000 between Aug. 24, 2019 and Feb. 29, 2020.
That information further alleges that, between April 5, 2019 and March 4, 2020, Cleroux fraudulently impersonated a woman with intent to gain advantage for herself.
Cleroux made an appearance by video Oct. 26 where lawyer Rachel Wood withdrew as her lawyer.
She said the appearance had been for entering of pleas.
Crown prosecutor Patti Tomasson said the case has been going on for almost two years, work that has included “lengthy negotiations with Crown.”
Tomasson expressed concern Cleroux was once again without a lawyer on the eve of the entering of pleas and sentencing.
Court documents show Cleroux has had six lawyers since B.C. proceedings began.
An Oct. 6 appearance had been for the entering of pleas and sentencing proceedings have been discussed.
“I have never made an agreement with the Crown on guilty pleas or sentencing,” Cleroux said.
“A plea agreement or sentencing agreement was never part of any deal,” she said.
Cleroux also suggested she should have a psychiatric assessment done.
“Crown is making me out to be such a bad person or a violent person,” she said.
Tomasson expressed concern to the court that Cleroux could bring a so-called Jordan application. That relates to a Supreme Court of Canada decision that puts caps of 18 or 30 months on proceedings depending on the kind of case.
Cleroux said she has waived delays in her case, and that she would not bring such an application.
Cleroux told the court there is a publication ban in place on her case. The only ban in court documents covers contents of bail hearings, publication of which is covered by Section 517 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
She has been in custody since her arrest by Ottawa police in August 2021 and is currently in prison in Ontario.
The first B.C. charges were detailed in a Nov. 19 2021 court information.
Her last listed bail appearance is Jan. 11.
She is due back in court Nov. 2.
The initial charges were approved after the Vancouver Police Department launched a months-long investigation spurred by reports of a B.C. 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.
