Valerie Cooper, former art gallery CEO, gets jail time for fraud

Valerie Cooper, the former Art Gallery of Calgary CEOwhodefrauded her employer of$100,000, has been sentenced to a year in jail.

She will also geta year of probation,80 hours of community service and is banned from being employed in a position with signing authority on financial accounts.

Cooper admitted in Julytodefrauding her employer through false expense claims over a three-year period.

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Some of the money went to pay for her condo rental, unauthorized travel and personal expenses like clothing, cleaningand massage services.

Coopersaid in the past that she never even knew what fraud meant butshedid not meanto hurt the gallery,asshe loved working there.

The Crown had asked for twoyears less a day while her defence had asked for no jail but a conditional sentence order instead.

"I'm somewhat disappointed that she wasn't given a conditional sentence order in the circumstances;however, clearly I think the sentence was within the range," said defence lawyerWillie de Wit.

He said his client is also disappointed.

"This is not a person that goes around and knowingly commits criminal offences. The whole gist of argument was she thought she was owed this money ... andmade a mistake with respect to how she tried to get it back," said de Wit.

Judge Anne Brown said breach of trust, the amount and duration of the fraud and the fact that the art gallery is a non-profit organization were aggravating factors in today's sentence.

But she also took into account when deciding her fatethat Cooper had no criminal record, she iswell educatedand she entered a guilty plea.