Medicine Hat woman charged after $60K stolen from Redcliff Legion

RCMP say a Medicine Hat woman is charged with fraud and theft in connection with a series of offences involving Redcliff's Royal Canadian Legion. (File)

Mounties say a 32-year-old Medicine Hat woman has been charged in connection with the theft of $60,000 from the Redcliff Legion.

Kristine Huff is accused of fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000 following an investigation that began more than two years ago.

RCMP said the "extensive investigation" discovered that the money went missing following a series of offences between March 1, 2020 and March 31, 2022.

Redcliff Legion president Barry Cole says Huff was an employee, but would not confirm what her position was or what her duties were.

"As soon as we found out what she was up to, she was terminated and the RCMP were called," Cole told CTV News in an interview Friday.

Cole says the whole situation led "to a rough couple of years" for himself and a number of the previous Legion presidents over the two-year-long investigation.

"I got confirmation a few months back that someone had been arrested but I couldn't say anything until they had been to court and had been released by RCMP."

The Redcliff Legion is working to recoup the money it lost, Cole says, and they're doing it with the help of volunteers with the organization.

"We're slowly getting back up," he said. "To lose $60,000 is a long hurdle to crawl back up from, so it's not going to be a quick sprint, it's going to be a slow marathon."

Huff is expected to appear in the Alberta Court of Justice in Medicine Hat on May 8.