For defrauding their workplace benefits program, two officers based in Sudbury were demoted from their current positions.
Constable Christopher Labreche and Constable Kathryn Howard, who also happen to be husband and wife, were sentenced for police misconduct yesterday at a hearing at Tom Davies Square,
CBC News reported. Both officers will be temporarily demoted, which amounts to a salary cut of more than $100,000 between the two of them.
Purportedly, the couple billed their insurer more than $3,000 for medical services such as vision care, massage therapy and chiropractic treatments that neither ever received.
“Often officers don’t get a second chance,” said Inspector Robert Gould, the tribunal adjudicator. “Make the best of it.”
During the hearing, the tribunal heard that the couple made a total of 29 false claims to the city’s benefits provider, supposedly while the couple was facing “difficult personal and financial pressures.”
Constable Howard, who has served the police force since 2004, will be demoted from a first class to a second class constable for one year. Her husband Labreche, who has served since 2009, will be demoted to fourth class constable with an annual pay cut of $32,000. Labreche’s demotion also lasts for three years before he can be restored back to first class.
Labreche had previously been served other penalties. He was disciplined last year and docked 96 hours pay for a “variety of counts” that the police force has kept undisclosed since it was an “informal discipline” process that was being handled within the department. Labreche pleaded guilty to criminal fraud in September, which led to stiffer penalties in this case than his wife.
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