N.S. woman accused of more than 170 fraud-related charges and more than $100K in financial gain

A Dartmouth, N.S., woman facing more than 170 charges in connection with serial fraud will stay in jail for the time being.

A Dartmouth, N.S., woman appeared in court Friday for a bail hearing on 178 charges, but ultimately abandoned her bid to be released.

Police first searched a home on Joseph Young Street in Dartmouth on Aug. 28, 2024. During the search, officers seized hundreds of documents, including multiple medical files, mobile electronic devices and identification cards, as well as an unsecured rifle.

Officers arrested and charged Alissa Kathryn MacGillivary, also known as Alexandra Ryan, with more than 50 fraud-related offences at the time.

On Aug. 15, RCMP responded to a fraud report involving a hardware store employee in Lower Sackville. Their investigation revealed the employee, MacGillivary, allegedly forged sick notes and a death certificate to get paid leave and donations through a fundraiser following the fictional death of a loved one.

On Thursday, RCMP announced more than 100 new charges against MacGillivary.

“She obtained more than $100,000 since 2014 and financial gains through the use of forged documents or identity theft schemes,” says Cpl. Guillaume Tremblay of the Nova Scotia RCMP. “She’s used more than 15 aliases, some of which were real people, real victims out there.”

Charges include extortion, use of and possession of forged documents, identity theft and more.

Police say she’s financially benefited from the alleged crimes dating back to 1995.

“We have identified through documents that there would be further evidence there to look at in terms of potential benefits that she would have gotten back to that date,” Tremblay tells CTV News.

“There’s a number of victims and a large number of false or fraudulent documents that are alleged to have been used over a number of years to gain, monetarily, by this accused,” Crown Attorney Robert Fetterly told reporters outside court.

The Crown had applied to revoke MacGillivary’s bail based on an allegation of breaching a release order, but her surety backed out so MacGillivary, through her lawyer, abandoned the bail hearing.

That means she’ll remain in custody until her next court date in March.

Asked if the Crown has ever seen a case of this magnitude, Fetterly said “Certainly, with the amount that we’re dealing with, yes.”

“But not with the different types of documents and names and number of victims and different schemes that were in place, no,” he said.

The allegations have not yet been tested in court.

-With files from CTV’s Jeremy Hull and Leigha Kaiser

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