Paralegal Admits Guilt In $2.6M Client Ripoff; Trust Account Looted, Chronic Care Patient Left Broke, On Public Dole; Pair Lost Entire Inheritance

In Hamilton, Ontario, The Hamilton Spectator reports:

• A crooked paralegal with an admitted gambling problem admits to siphoning more $2.6 million from unsuspecting clients, while masquerading as a bona fide lawyer. Shellee Spinks, 47, pleaded guilty to 16 criminal charges yesterday, including one of theft by power of attorney, 12 counts of theft by conversion, and one each of perjury, obstruction of justice and uttering a forged document.

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• Superior Court Justice Barry Matheson heard that between September 2002 and February 2008, Spinks was employed as a paralegal by Hamilton lawyer Michael Puskas. Much of her work involved completing real estate transactions for her employer, along with various accounting responsibilities.

• Puskas maintained a bank account at TD Canada Trust in which mortgage funds were held in trust for real estate clients in the process of buying and selling properties. At the same time, Spinks controlled another account with the bank that was for her personal use and into which she regularly transferred large sums of money from the law firm's legitimate trust account. Total losses to real estate clients from these type of thefts amounted to $926,000.

• Between October 2002 and February 2008, Spinks held power of attorney for an 81-year-old woman in a nursing home. Spinks stole an estimated $200,000 and left the chronic-care patient destitute and on public assistance.

• In March 2006, Spinks forged the last will and testament of an Ancaster man, which named herself as the executor and trustee of his estate. The bogus will directed that his estate should pass to Spinks, and absent that, to the man's two sisters. The man died on Sept. 26, 2006. At the time of his death, he owned a property on Glancaster Road and had about $400,000 in investment securities.

• In December that year, Spinks and one of the sisters sold the Glancaster Road property. After adjustments and fees, the balance of nearly $950,000 was to have been deposited into an account in trust for the man's estate. Instead, Spinks deposited the cheque into her private account. When his family questioned why the estate was taking so long to disburse, Spinks told another lie. She said a former employee had come forward with a new will, naming himself executor and this was causing complications and delay. In the end, Spinks also cashed out the deceased man's securities and ended up cheating his sisters out of their entire $1.4 million inheritance.

• Crown counsel Tracey Stapleton said documents obtained from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation and internet gambling records revealed that most of the $2.6 million was gambled away by Spinks, except for $700,000, which was transferred to a company called The Broker's Room.

Source: Legal assistant bilked millions (Woman pleads guilty to 16 charges).