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THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2013
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Inaugural Punjabi Sports Festival hits Tamansawis Park this weekend
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604-596-3250 Applewood KIA “It’s all good at Applewood!” 16299 FRASER HIGHWAY
See page 3
Bookkeeper bilked $2.9M, nearly bankrupted business The social (media) side of music
Tom Zytaruk
SO
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Now staff Twitter @tomzytaruk
Ellen Norris worked at Megatech, where she committed mega theft. Now, the former Surrey bookkeeper is serving a four-and-a-half year prison term and must repay $2,319,844.87 of the nearly $2.9 million she bilked from her former employer, Megatech Engineering Limited. Megatech is a steel fabricating company that started up in Surrey in 1986 and numbers BC Ferries and several mining companies and pulp mills among its clients. Norris was in charge of the company’s payroll and had signing authority on its chequing accounts between May 2000 and September 2005. She pleaded guilty to theft over $5,000, in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. Justice Robert Crawford noted her motive was “avarice; simple greed,” which drove Megatech and her 35 coworkers “right to the wall.” It was “happenstance,” he noted, that did Norris in when a Workers’ Compensation Board audit found a discrepancy between her T4 income for 2004 and the company’s payroll ledger. Digging deeper, the accountant found Norris had signed 577 company cheques totalling $2,633.537.90 to her benefit.
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Surrey
Former Megatech employee gets four and a half years for ‘amazing’ spending spree
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The days of using posters to promote a show are long gone – or are they? Ava Carich, above, is among today’s musicians who use social media to connect with their fans. See page 13. (Photo: KEVIN HILL)
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Surrey
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Delta
Fassbender will revisit bus funding Sandor Gyarmati Delta Optimist
The new minister of education appears willing to revisit the Delta school district’s bussing issue, said Vicki Huntington. The independent Delta South MLA said Peter Fassbender will re-examine the formula that resulted in severe cuts to the district’s transportation funding. Huntington noted the minister, responding to questions in the legislature, said, “We do recognize there are probably six districts in the province that have some unique issues as it relates to the transportation issue... We have a technical review Peter Fassbender committee that we have asked to sit down and take a look at those unique issues and to determine whether or not some adjustment in that formula is warranted.” The Delta school board approved a series of budget cuts this spring, including elimination of bussing for most students. To make up for a phased $728,000 transportation funding cut from the province, the district eliminated the rural bus program, although the service for special needs students will be maintained. The move angered many parents living in rural areas, who said their kids’ safety was being jeopardized. Huntington said the minister’s promised review is a step in the right direction. sgyarmati@delta-optimist
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