Former Tsay Keh Dene manager sentenced for insurance fraud

A former human resources manager with the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation pleaded guilty April 22 to defrauding an insurance company of almost $18,000.

Nelson Ugonna Onwuliri administered the band’s employee benefits plan and created accounts in the names of band members, ultimately using the accounts to file fraudulent claims with Sun Life Insurance for medical services from Dec. 1, 2022, to May 4, 2023.

A total of $17,742 from those claims was directed to one of Onwuliri’s personal accounts.

Sun Life, the victim of the fraud, recovered $13,200 from Onwuliri’s accounts. Court heard that the company confirmed in the past week that the outstanding amount of $4,542 was paid.

Associate Chief Judge Paul Dohm agreed to a joint Crown and defence sentencing proposal for a five-month conditional sentence in the community, followed by 12 months’ probation.

Onwuliri, who had no prior criminal record, avoided jail by co-operating with the RCMP and Sun Life and pleading guilty as charged.

Dohm said the joint proposal recognized aggravating factors, including breach of trust and the “high degree of moral culpability, but the exceptional efforts taken to amend the wrongdoing by paying back the full amount.”

The 34-year-old married father of four is a native of Nigeria who has lived in Canada for the past nine years and became a Canadian citizen in 2023. He has university degrees from Nigeria and the United Kingdom, a diploma in human resources management from the College of New Caledonia in Prince George and a Harvard Business School certificate in First Nations governance.

Defence lawyer David Jenkins Jr. told the court that his client still works in the field of human resources, but is ashamed and has an “enormous amount of remorse.”

Jenkins said Onwuliri committed the fraud over $5,000 after becoming depressed when his father was murdered by poisoning at a time when travel was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jenkins said his client’s personal circumstances were no excuse for the crime, but he was “in a mindset where he could commit a fraud such as this.”

Onwuliri must stay in BC unless he receives prior written permission from a conditional sentence supervisor.

“Keep looking after your family, keep working and no more of this kind of behaviour,” Dohm said to Onwuliri. “Understood?”