Anne Squires, former broker/owner of Exit Realty on the Rock in St. John’s, N.L. has been sentenced to two years less a day after she pleaded guilty to charges of theft, fraud, forgery and breach of trust.
The offences took place from 2014 to 2016. When the brokerage’s license was suspended on Feb. 4, 2016, it had 66 Realtors listed on realtor.ca, working from offices in St. John’s and Glovertown.
Squires pleaded guilty to stealing from Exit Realty on the Rock’s trust account and of defrauding commission advance company AccessEasyFunds. She created sales agreements to get money from the company, using forged signatures and sometimes for properties that did not exist.
There were 33 fraudulent transactions and $522,386 was advanced to Squires. She has already repaid $50,000 but has been ordered to repay the rest to AccessEasyFunds.
“Ms. Squires made a conscious decision to engage in ongoing criminal activity,” Justice Robert Stack told the court, as reported by The Telegram. He said that a lengthy video address by Squires at her sentencing hearing was meant to be an apology, but instead was an effort to shift the blame for her crimes.
