Former Millbrook employee has yet to retain attorney in $4 million fraud case

A Bible Hill woman accused this spring of embezzling more than $4 million from her former employer, the Millbrook First Nation, has yet to seek legal counsel.

Dawn Marie Ellis-Abbott, 43, is charged with fraud of more than $5,000, theft of more than $5,000 and possession of more than $5,000 in property acquired through crime.

Ellis-Abbott was arraigned in Truro county court in May and made a second appearance on Wednesday.

She told Judge Brian Williston that she has applied for legal aid in Nova Scotia for a lawyer, but is awaiting word on the outcome.

Crown lawyer Mark Heerema said his office has spoken to legal aid and it appears that the defendant’s application has been accepted but not yet granted.

Heerema said the evidence in the case, which he described as a significant amount, was provided to legal counsel at the end of June. He suggested that Ellis-Abbott’s indictment be postponed until September to give the assigned attorney time to review the material.

Williston has scheduled the case to go to court on September 6. He said he hopes that at that point Ellis-Abbott will be ready to choose whether she wants to be tried in the provincial court or the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.

If she chooses to have her cases heard in the county court, she can be expected to file pleas the following day.

RCMP announced the charges against Ellis-Abbott on April 14, saying the Millbrook detachment received a report from the Millbrook band board in December 2019 about possible fraud committed by a former employee.

At the time of the initial report, the fraud was believed to have exceeded $1 million, police said.

The investigation was taken over by the Nova Scotia RCMP commercial crime division, assisted by RCMP digital forensics services and Public Services and Procurement Canada’s forensic accounting management group.

In the course of the investigation, more than $4 million was found to have been stolen or misappropriated over a four-year period between January 2016 and December 2019, RCMP claimed in the press release.