Former Kamloops golf pro who bilked employer to pay gambling debt back behind bars

A Kamloops golf pro who bilked his employer out of more than $40,000 to fund a gambling habit has been ordered to spend the remainder of his sentence behind bars.

Chris Power, 36, will spend 393 days in prison due to multiple breaches of his conditional sentence order (CSO).

In October 2020, Chris Power pleaded guilty in Kamloops provincial court to a dozen fraud-related charges stemming from a series of interactions he had with members while working as the head pro at Rivershore Estates and Golf Links in 2016 and 2017. He was ordered to live under house arrest as part of his CSO and ordered to repay $40,664 to Rivershore to cover its losses stemming from his offences.

BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Daniel McLaughlin said Power was found to have breached the 24-hour curfew provision on his CSO on three occasions: May 25, Sept. 21 and Nov. 21 of this year.

“The result was an order from the court terminating the CSO and directing the remainder of the sentence be served in custody,” McLaughlin said.

Power had previously been accused of breaching his conditions twice: on Dec. 8, 2020, and again on Jan. 15, 2021.

Last October, Kamloops provincial court Judge Raymond Phillips agreed to a joint submission for an 18-month conditional sentence order for Power, which has him living under house arrest for that time period.

Power’s scheme was unsophisticated — he would offer memberships or golf clubs for sale and pocket the cash, rather than give it to his employer. The value of the transactions ranged from $600 to more than $7,300, but Rivershore honoured all purchases — even when Power did not.

— This story was originally published by Kamloops This Week.