A former credit union worker has been ordered to pay $12,000 in fines and close to $49,000 in restitution she pleaded guilty to two counts of larceny involving the misappropriation of loan payments from credit union members.
Kerry Walker, who served as the delinquent loans officer at St John’s Cooperative Credit Union (SJCCU), was ordered to pay $6,000 within 30 days for each count, with a default sentence of six months.
She must also compensate her victims a total of $48,758.61, with one victim to receive $2,604.61 within six months and another to receive $46,154 within 12 months.
She misappropriated loan payments from two SJCCU members who trusted her to process their monthly instalments between 2018 and 2020.
Both victims had close personal connections to Walker’s family. One victim was the teacher of one of Walker’s daughters and godmother to another, while the second victim was a bus driver who was godfather to one of Walker’s daughters.
In the first case, the teacher applied for a $15,000 loan in July 2018, seeking Walker’s assistance due to their personal connection. The victim made 17 monthly payments of $570 between September 2018 and March 2020, totalling $9,690.
The fraud came to light in January 2021 when the victim questioned the loan balance of $11,154.99 and Walker failed to produce receipts for the payments.
Investigations revealed that Walker misappropriated $2,804.61 by either failing to, or only partially depositing the payments.
The second victim took out a $400,000 mortgage in June 2017 with monthly payments of $3,200.
He entrusted Walker with his payments in June 2018, and later increased the monthly amounts to $3,700 after taking an additional $20,000 loan in April 2019.
Between August 2018 and February 2020, he provided Walker with payments totalling $51,500.
The fraud was discovered when he obtained his repayment schedule in January 2021, revealing that Walker had misappropriated $46,154 of his payments.
Walker pleaded guilty to the two counts of larceny in October 2024 and was sentenced on Monday by Justice Tunde Bakre.
She is scheduled to return to court on September 16 to report on her progress in paying the ordered compensation.
