B.C. judge sentences woman to prison for stealing from boss [Video]

A Victoria woman who admitted to skimming more than $340,000 from her employer has been sentenced to three years in prison.

Melissa Cielen, a 49-year-old paralegal and office manager, pleaded guilty to embezzling the money from her lawyer boss over the course of four years, from 2018 to 2022.

Writing in his sentencing decision published Tuesday, provincial court Judge Ted Gouge says Cielen had worked in the same law office since 2010, where her duties included paying the company’s bills.

Cielen was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2018 and began to abuse alcohol and cocaine thereafter, according to the judge’s decision.

To support those habits, Cielen made payments to herself, disguising them as routine office expenses for things like court fees and furniture, according to the decision. Those fraudulent payments totalled $343,077.28 before she was caught.

A forensic psychiatrist who assessed Cielen for a presentencing report found no evidence that she suffers from a major …