To steal cars and skip out on paying for Botox, among many other frauds, a 42-year-old Kelowna fraudster used an array of aliases, stolen credit cards, and fake Facebook profiles to dupe unsuspecting victims.

Each time police caught up with her, she was later released on bail and continued her crime spree.

On Oct. 5, Natasha Marie Saari, who also goes by the name Natasha Akins, appeared in a Kelowna courtroom facing 28 charges ranging from fraud and using forged documents to theft and breaching release orders. She pleaded guilty to 16 charges.

Despite her lengthy list of crimes, lawyers put forward a joint submission for one year full-time house arrest, followed by a year on a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.

Judge Andrew Tam described the suggested sentence as “extraordinarily lenient.”

However, as judges are largely mandated to accept joint submissions, he did.

“The offending was serious, it was repeated, it was incessant, you were told time and again not to possess identity documents, you were told time and again not to be in private vehicles, not to be associating with (a co-accused) and just for a period of about a year and a half you did exactly all those things that you were not supposed to,” the Judge said.

Saari’s latest crime spree started in June 2024 and often followed a similar pattern – using stolen credit cards and IDs to rent vehicles she didn’t return, and to rent properties she stole from.

The court heard that Saari had used a stolen credit card and ID to rent a Dodge Ram. When the vehicle wasn’t returned, the rental company contacted police. Police then found that the name Saari used was that of a woman who had her vehicle and purse recently stolen.

It’s unclear how the RCMP caught up with Saari in the Dodge Ram, but when they did, the licence plates had been changed.

She was arrested, but later released.

A month later, the 42-year-old booked herself a $724 Botox treatment under the name Natasha Akins and handed over two stolen credit cards. When neither card worked, she told staff she’d just nip to her car and get her wallet but never returned.

A few months later, Saari contacted a person selling their Audi through Facebook Marketplace.

She arrived on foot and said she’d take the car for a quick test ride. She never returned and deleted her Facebook account.

The RCMP found the car weeks later, with different plates, and Saari’s fingerprints on it.

Sometime later, she was a passenger in a vehicle driven by Chadwick Milnthorp that was pulled over because the registered owner was listed as deceased.

Police found a stolen ID, Nexus card, birth certificate, and cheques along with house keys and car keys for a Jeep.

The stolen IDs belong to a woman who’d rented a room to Saari, but under a different name. Saari was going by Sarah Webb. The real Sarah Webb had recently reported that she’d had some mail stolen.

Saari was also wearing two rings she’d stolen from the woman who rented rooms. A third was never recovered.

While Saari had rented a room, she used a stolen cheque to pay for it, and when the cheque was returned, the landlady changed the locks.

Again, Saari was released but later arrested after being caught driving a U-Haul, although she’s been banned from driving.

Saari continued her crime spree, stealing $40,000 of sports memorabilia from a locked room at a VRBO she’d rented. This time she used the name Lyric Peterson and was seen on CCTV loading boxes onto the back of a truck.

Months later, she stole a used Volkswagen Jetta from an unsuspecting person on Facebook Marketplace. She’d arranged a meet in a Walmart parking lot and gave the seller a printed copy of her passport and said she’d sent an e-transfer. We went for a quick test ride but didn’t return. The e-transfers never materialized.

Police caught up with her that day, and Saari spent two weeks in prison before being released on bail with an electronic ankle monitor.

In the last 10 months on bail, she has kept her nose clean.

Little was said about Saari’s life, but she had a good upbringing and cared for her daughter, who had complex medical needs. Her first marriage was abusive, and she’d recently lost her mother and brother.

She told the court she was embarrassed about her behaviour.

“I went through some stuff I shouldn’t have done, if I could go back, I would change it all in a heartbeat,” Saari told the court. “I (was) being selfish and I cause harm where I shouldn’t cause harm.”

Her lawyer described it as a “bad couple of years.”

However, civil court records show Saari and her partner, Kenneth William Fawcett, who also goes by the name Kenneth Kazakoff, owe numerous people money.

In July 2023, a Kelowna landlord got a court order for $16,767 through the Residential Tenancy Branch. A year earlier, a Vernon landlord took legal steps to have them evicted, although it’s unclear how much money they owed. That same year, a landlord in Lake Country got a court order for $4,100.

In 2018, Kelowna RCMP described Fawcett as a “prolific offender” after he was caught stealing a bait car.

Saari’s co-accused, Chadwick Earl Milnthorp, is due to stand trial in January.