Michelle Bouchard, who was jailed in 2016 for stealing from her elderly boyfriend, has been ordered to sell property and jewellery to pay his estate back more than $2 million.
Bouchard was convicted nearly a decade ago in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands on charges of dishonesty and theft in relation to money she stole from Australian millionaire James Bruce Handford between May 2010 and October 2012.
At the time of her trial in 2016, when she was found guilty by a jury and sentenced, Bouchard was 55 and Handford was 88.
She was sentenced to 12 years in prison, later reduced on appeal to 10 years. She has since completed her sentence and is no longer living in Cayman.
Grand Court Justice Cheryll Richards on 24 Oct. accepted a compensation order regarding a property and items of jewellery that have been put up for sale. The proceeds of those sales will be used pay $2,056,076 to the estate of the late Handford.
The amount to be paid had been determined in a 2018 confiscation/restitution hearing, in which Bouchard had been ordered to pay $2.23 million to the victim or his executors.
Bouchard did not appear in court, either in person or via video, but was represented by her lawyer, John Furniss.
Costs incurred by the government in realising the assets that are being sold will be deducted from the sum raised in the sales, Crown counsel Rimesh Jani told the court.
Furniss noted that an escrow account relating to the sale of an Ocean Club property could be used for the Crown’s costs, and asked if his costs could also be taken from that account.
In response, Jani said a million dollars had been “taken from an account in Canada” and did not form part of the compensation amount before the court.
“And, therefore, from our point of view, the costs that Ms Bouchard has in relation to her legal costs should be paid by her, and not from the funds which are going to compensate the victims,” he said.
He added that while he had sympathy for Furness’s position, “it would be appropriate for her, bearing in mind she is in funds, to pay her own legal fees”.
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