A fraud trial jury heard Thursday that the Port Arthur Polish Hall’s savings account was drained of more than $46,000 over a nine-month period in 2005.
The court saw bank statements from the savings account during the third day of the fraud trial of Krystyna Dolasinski Thursday at the Superior Court of Justice.
Dolasinski has been charged with theft and fraud exceeding $5,000 and falsifying documents between Dec. 1, 2004 and Sept. 30, 2006.
She was the office manager for the Port Arthur Polish Alliance Branch #19 and the Port Arthur Polish Hall from early 2000 to September 2006.
Assistant Crown attorney Gordon Fillmore showed the jury bank statements from January 2005 to September 2005, showing the Polish Hall’s savings account go from $46,000 to $0. Many of the withdrawals were listed as transfers to the hall’s operating account.
Each statement had a “received” stamp on it and a date handwritten underneath the stamp.
The Alliance’s financial secretary Donna Wronowski testified the handwriting appeared to belong to Dolasinski.
Wronowski said no one was authorized to withdraw from the savings account and they never used funds from the savings account to pay for the day-to-day operations of the hall.
They always had enough money from their perogie sales and other services to pay their bills, she said.
Wronowski also testified that Dolasinski never mentioned money was withdrawn from the savings and no one saw the bank statements until after they had called the police about the bookkeeping discrepancies.
The court also saw cheque stubs Thursday that had dollar amounts paid to the Polish Hall. When showed the corresponding cheque, the payee wasn’t the Polish Hall but Dolasinski.
The cheques were signed by both Dolasinski and then-Alliance President Bozena Bystrzycki.
Wronowski also told the court about a gas bill the hall received for the period of May 12 to June 13, 2006. It was a final-warning notice that if the bill wasn’t paid, the hall’s gas would be turned off.
Wronowski has been a member of Branch No. 19 since 1976 and said they never had a problem paying their bills before.
She said she noticed there were two cheques missing in the hall’s books, one for $4,000 and one for $6,000.
Bystrzycki called a meeting with the executive to address the problem and when Dolasinski was questioned about it, she said she did not have to explain herself, said Wronowski.
Dolasinski then said she was resigning from the board, put her keys on the table and said she wanted to leave, testified Wronowski.
The president asked her to stay because they didn’t have anyone in the office and they needed the help.
It was two weeks later that Wronowski heard Dolasinski was no longer employed at the hall.
That’s when Wronowski took over the job of office manager.
The trial continues Friday.
