Alana Love Duncan grandparent scam sentencing, Digi Mart USA News (Calgary, Alberta): Calgary senior scammer Alana Love Duncan is headed to jail after a city judge on Wednesday denied her bid to withdraw her guilty pleas to seven fraud charges.
Justice Michele Hollins sentenced Duncan to 12 months of incarceration, followed by 12 months of probation, after rejecting a joint proposal for a community-based sentence. That rejection prompted the offender’s effort to change her pleas.
Hollins said granting the application by Duncan’s lawyer, Mary Stephensen, to withdraw the admissions of guilt would amount to the judge presiding over an appeal of her own ruling. She said the grounds raised on Duncan’s behalf were not sufficient to allow the case to be heard by another judge.
“All these arguments are arguments for appeal and therefore the application is dismissed,” Hollins said. “Ms.
Duncan is effectively asking me to sit on appeal of my own decision.”
The Court of King’s Bench judge initially balked at a joint recommendation by Stephensen and Crown prosecutor Don Couturier to hand Duncan the maximum conditional sentence order of two years less a day. That proposal would have had Duncan serve 12 months under house arrest and the remainder on a nightly curfew.
Duncan, 49, pleaded guilty more than a year ago to seven counts of fraud in connection with scams carried out between July 21 and Aug. 16, 2023. In those scams, grandparents were duped into handing over cash or property worth $70,000.
According to a statement of agreed facts entered as an exhibit in the case, seniors were phoned by individuals who identified themselves either as police officers or as the victims’ grandchildren. In one instance, the caller claimed to be a nephew.
The callers indicated the senior’s relative had been arrested.
The victims, who ranged in age from 67 to 96, were told cash was needed to bail their relatives out of legal trouble. Duncan later picked up the funds.
“At all times, Ms. Duncan was aware that her activities were part of a fraudulent scheme,” the agreed facts stated.
In her sentencing decision, Hollins noted that Duncan’s crimes targeted some of the most vulnerable people in the community. “The offender was part of a coordinated grandparent fraud scheme,” the judge said.
The scam left those targeted believing “that it was their own grandchildren who were indeed in trouble.”
During her probation, Duncan must perform 50 hours of community service. She must also pay restitution of $12,000, a figure Hollins reduced from the amount proposed by the lawyers, given that Duncan will be spending time behind bars.
Couturier and Stephensen had suggested restitution of $18,000, noting that others involved in the scheme were never charged.
