Guilty of having defrauded parents: a daycare owner places herself as a victim

After blaming the parents she defrauded out of tens of thousands of dollars, an unscrupulous daycare owner once again played the victim card, hoping to get a sentence to be served at home without having to pay anything back.

• Also read: Already Guilty of Defrauding Parents: Daycare Owner Charged Again

• Also read: She blamed the victims: daycare owner guilty of defrauding parents

• Also read: “It’s a scam”: another daycare would have cheated parents

“I feel excluded by society, I am persecuted… I just want to live in peace with my children,” Fatima El Boukhari sobbed this Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse.

Complaining in turn about receiving threats online, being depressed, or even having to live at the expense of the State, the 49-year-old Montrealer almost gave the impression of being a victim testifying about the consequences. of a crime.

But if she was in court, it was more as a fraudster guilty of causing hell to parents who were looking for daycare for their children.

Parents devastated

At the time, El Boukhari owned the Aux coin des ami(e)s daycare, rue Hochelaga. Her establishment was private, but she made it appear that it was subsidized. Subsequently, she produced false tax credit applications in the name of the parents, but with bogus information so as not to arouse their suspicions.

“All parents thought that child care costs would be $8 per day, and that the government would pay the balance [qui revenait à 48$ quotidiennement]», Explained Judge Salvatore Mascia.

From 2016 to 2022, nine parents were cheated for a total of at least $66,000. The latter finally discovered the fraud after Revenu Québec went after them, demanding reimbursements.

“I was desperate and devastated, because of that, I had to give up my life plan to settle in Quebec and offer a better life to my two-year-old child,” said one victim.

But for El Boukhari, the judge should instead focus on the consequences she suffered, such as her lack of sleep and the racism she says she has suffered since the Quebecor Bureau of Investigation revealed her fraud.

She doesn’t want to pay anything back

El Boukhari, who has lived in Quebec for 20 years and who has citizenship, says he now lives on $815 monthly in social assistance and “around $1,600” in family allowances from Quebec and Ottawa.

“I don’t have enough money to have a car of the year, but my car is from 2012,” she testified. I’m looking for help, there are associations that help me.”

All this should be taken into account, according to his lawyer M^e Amélie D’Assylvas, demanding that the judge impose a year of home confinement and 240 hours of community service.

And if the cheated parents hope to one day be reimbursed, the lawyer believes that they should put an end to this idea.

“She does not have the capacity to repay, ordering compensation to the victims would place her in a precarious financial situation, which is not acceptable,” she said.

M^e Sarah-Audrey Daigneault of the Crown, for her part, is calling for 12 to 18 months in prison, accompanied by an order for reimbursement.

In addition to having been found guilty of defrauding parents, El Boukhari also faces new charges, this time against the tax authorities and several banks, for an amount of $1.9 million.

More details to come…