The woman accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the safe of Wilfrid Laurier University’s bookstore took the stand Thursday.
Breanna Flynn denied any wrongdoing, telling the court that money police found in her home and believed to be stolen was actually her personal savings.
Flynn was arrested in September 2014, after $31,000 went missing from the bookstore’s coffers. She has pleaded not guilty to theft over $5,000.
A search of Flynn’s Elmira home turned up $28,000 stuffed into a shoebox. Behind the box were a number of Brinks bags that matched the ones used by the bookstore.
Under cross-examination Thursday, Flynn said that she had found the bags in her office and took them home for safekeeping until she could figure out what to do with them.
The Crown questioned why, if that were the case, Flynn would have stored the bags with the cash – much of which was small-denomination bills.
Flynn responded by saying that she did indeed put the bags in the same drawer where she already had a shoebox full of cash. She said it was a panicked reaction to discovering that somebody else had stolen money from the safe.
The Crown also suggested that Flynn was under financial stress at the time, pointing out that she owed the Canada Revenue Agency approximately $12,000.
Asked why she didn’t use the money in the shoebox to pay the CRA, Flynn responded that she was waiting to hear back from the agency about the exact amount they wanted from her in installment payments.
Flynn was the final witness to testify, meaning the case is now in the hands of the judge. A verdict is expected to be delivered on Feb. 28.
With reporting by Allison Tanner
