A former account manager of Summerland's Royal Bank will spend three years in jail and pay back the money she defrauded from the bank's clients.
Terry Lee Sedawie was sentenced to 1,095 days in jail and ordered to pay back over $846,000 she stole from six of the bank's clients, who were largely seniors who trusted her.
One victim had so much trust in Sedawie that she was left $5,000 in the victim's will when she died in 2016.
On May 7, 2024, she pleaded guilty to six charges of fraud over $5,000 stemming from incidents in 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 and on Oct. 7, she appeared in Penticton Provincial Court for sentencing.
Sedawie had worked for RBC since 1986, and in Summerland, she handled both business accounts and personal accounts for a number of the bank's clients.
"She was well respected and loved by colleagues and clients alike, as a result, she climbed the ladder quickly and ended up at the Summerland branch where many of her clients who are elderly, put their trust in her with their life savings," said the judge. "She destroyed that reputation in a stunning fall from grace.
Turning from a trusted figure to a thief who preyed on some of Summerland's most vulnerable elderly citizens."
Between February 2016 and April 2017, Sedawie drained $219,000 out of a 104-year-old client's account.
That victim had been living in Prairie Valley Lodge up until 2017 but had to leave after she could no longer afford the $6,000 monthly rate. She had to move to a rooming house, where she lived until it closed in 2021, and then to Summerland Seniors Village until her death later that year.
Her power of attorney told the RBC investigators that the decision to move the victim to the cheaper care facility was because the victim was running out of money, and that after moving out of Prairie Valley Lodge she had lost over 25 pounds.
"You connect the dots, when the money was taken by Ms. Sedawie out of Ms. King's account, that's the direct reason why she could no longer live at Prairie Valley," said the Crown.
All told, the money was taken through more than 125 transactions from the bank's clients. She instructed 16 of her fellow bank employees to debit the accounts of the six victims over the years without knowing the transactions were without consent or that they were transferring the funds into Sedawie's pocket.
"Because she had that relationship with the employees, the employees wouldn't question it," said the Crown. "It was just simply 'Take money out of this line of credit and put it towards this credit card payment, or this bank account,' and again, the employee didn't question it given who Ms. Sedawie was and the relationship they had."
In addition, Sedawie undertook efforts to ensure her crimes wouldn't be detected, including changing the addresses for where bank statements would go and making minimum payments on lines of credit to ensure they wouldn't send out alerts.
"Within months, Ms. Sedawie then targeted a new elderly client and began pilfering her account, exploiting her deepest trust in her to look after her financial security and on and on, it went with different clients," said the Judge. "It leaves me struggling to understand how a person could fall so far."
Crown acknowledged that Sedawie had initially taken money to pay off her son's drug debt, but that she compounded the decision with further thefts.
Defence noted that she committed further thefts to fund attempts at gambling to win back enough money to pay back all the clients, but that only led her into a downward spiral.
"She's a woman who enjoyed a 20-year career at the Royal Bank. She was a good employee, she received awards and got promotions," said Sedawie's defence. "She did volunteer work in the community, and then she faces this crisis when she's already dealing with depression through the death of her mother, other factors and, decides to take money from her clients to pay her son's drug debts."
The judge agreed to the joint submission, acknowledging the guilty plea and mental health issues that Sedawie is grappling with.
Sedawie was sentenced to 1,095 days in jail, as well as ordered to pay restitution to the bank for $846,278.36, to account for the money that the bank returned to its customers.
It was stated in court that without the restitution order, Crown would have wanted a four-year jail sentence.
It is unlikely the full amount will ever be repaid, as Sedawie declared bankruptcy in 2019, and is currently living on her pension and CPP.
Sedawie also received a five-year prohibition after release for five years from seeking, obtaining or continuing any employment or becoming a volunteer in any capacity that involves having authority over the real property money, valuable security or valuable security of any other person.
