A Calgary woman who admitted to stealing thousands of dollars from elderly victims was handed a 12-month jail sentence plus a year of probation after the judge refused to allow her to back out of her guilty plea. Alana Love Duncan, 48, pleaded guilty last year to seven counts of fraud over $5,000 after she and several accomplices stole about $70,000 from seven women, who were mostly in their eighties and nineties, over a four-week period in the summer of 2023. The “sophisticated and predatory” grandparent scam involved Duncan acting as an “in-person courier,” noted prosecutor Don Couturier at a sentencing hearing earlier this year. In each case, the victim received a call with news that her grandson, great-grandson or nephew was in trouble and needed money. Duncan is the only one who has been charged. Following her plea, the Crown and defence jointly proposed a conditional sentence for Duncan, meaning she would serve her sentence at home under conditions including house arrest and then curfew. Defence lawyer Mary Stephensen had told the judge that Duncan had been addicted to crack cocaine but was sober and focused on “trying to right this wrong.” Woman who stole $70K in grandparent scam should get house arrest, lawyers argue But in her June decision to reject the conditional sentence, Court of King’s Bench Justice Michele Hollins noted that Duncan is currently unemployed and living at home, receiving government assistance. The proposed sentence, said Hollins, “would look very similar to the life she is living pre-conviction” and wouldn't “be at all acceptable to a reasonably informed member of the public.” “She stood face to face with these people and took their money, knowing they believed they had to give it to her to help a family member in trouble,” wrote Hollins. "Approving this conditional sentence would not sufficiently denounce these crimes." When she learned she would be facing a jail term, Duncan then applied to vacate her guilty plea. On Wednesday, Hollins rejected that application, finding the proper avenue is an appeal. Hollins then handed Duncan a one-year sentence, followed by a year of probation and ordered her to pay $12,000 in restitution. “The vulnerability that was exploited here was familial,” wrote Hollins in her earlier decision. The victims were instructed to keep the matter private. They then went to their bank and withdrew between $6,500 and $10,000 in cash, handing it over to Duncan when she arrived to collect. In one case, a 94-year-old victim did not have the $8,000 she believed was needed for her great-grandson’s bail, so she gave away her coin collection worth $22,000. “These fraudsters impersonated the grandchildren and great grandchildren of these victims, even in one case saying 'I love you lots,'" wrote Hollins. “They also impersonated the police or other law enforcement persons, again taking extreme advantage of the trust people generally put in law enforcement.” Meghan Grant is a justice affairs reporter. She has been covering courts, crime and stories of police accountability in southern Alberta for more than 15 years. Send Meghan a story tip at [email protected].
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