A former Summerland banker who pleaded guilty to six counts of defrauding clients was given a three-year federal penitentiary sentence Monday at the Penticton Courthouse.
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Terry Lee Sedawie, a long-time business account manager at the Summerland RBC branch, entered the pleas in early May in provincial court in Penticton.
The Penticton Herald reported earlier this year that Sedawie was initially set to plead guilty in 2021, then changed her mind and elected to go to trial.
The trial was scheduled for late 2023, but Sedawie was a no-show and a warrant was issued for her arrest. After her arrest in January 2024, she once again indicated a desire to plead guilty.
News of the charges emerged publicly in February 2021, at which time RBC issued a statement confirming only that Sedawie no longer worked for the bank and that her alleged victims had been reimbursed.
Sedawie, who started with RBC in 1986, was well-regarded in the community.
In 2016, she was honoured in the professional services category of the Summerland Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. She was nominated again in 2017.
Sedawie told a judge back then she was trying to raise money to hire a lawyer to handle her case.
The charges, which allege the fraudulent activity spanned from April 2011 to February 2018, were sworn in August 2020.
