Former IWK CEO Tracy Kitch found guilty of fraud after retrial

Tracy Kitch, the former head of the IWK, has been found guilty of fraud over $5,000.

The former CEO of the IWK Health Centre in Halifax has been convicted of fraud over $5,000 for using her corporate credit card to pay for personal expenses.

This was the second trial for Tracy Kitch, who was appointed as the children’s hospital CEO in 2014.

At the time, she was given a corporate credit card, which she acknowledged in writing was not for personal use, according to a previous court decision.

Kitch was charged with fraud over $5,000 in 2018 following an internal investigation by the hospital. Kitch was accused of using the hospital credit card to pay for roughly $47,000 in personal expenses, including flights.

Kitch was convicted and sentenced to five months in jail in 2022, but she was released on bail pending her appeal, which was heard on Mar. 7, 2023. That appeal was successful, with the court ruling the trial judge had failed to adequately explain the reasons behind the decision to convict Kitch in 2022, and a new trial was ordered.

Her retrial started last year.

The Public Prosecution Service confirmed Kitch was convicted of fraud over $5,000 on Friday. She will be sentenced at a later date.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Hafsa Arif

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