Ex-courierreceivescourtdischargeafterstealing$94Kincash Citynow

A Calgary-based cryptocurrency company briefly lost an envelope stuffed with more than $94,000 in cash two years ago.

The money, which belonged to BitNational, had been shipped with Purolator in Decem- ber 2020 but it didn’t make it past the shipping centre in Burnaby, according to facts presented inVancouver provincial court Feb 28

The package landed in the lap of George Petrelli, a 25-year veteran Purolator employee, in a moment of weakness, according to defence lawyerTom Doust.

“I don’t know, but I suspect having $100,000 in cash in an envelope, holding it in your hand and seeing that the package is open and you can see 50s and 100s, this is temptation,” Doust told the court “This is an extreme example of temptation ”

Doust noted Petrelli’s wife was also battling can-

cer at the time and he was under a lot of pressure

Petrelli stole the cash and replaced it with an envelope

He stowed it in his garden shed, according to Doust.

Meanwhile, the empty Purolator shipment arrived at its destination, and the recipient was soon making inquiries about the missing cash.

Security video pointed to Petrelli as the culprit.

He denied it at first, but then “very quickly admitted to the offence,” according to Crown prosecutor Louise Gauld.

He returned all of the money that was hidden at his house and “immediately” replaced $2,000 he had spent at a casino, she said.

Gauld called for a 12-month suspended sentence with 50 hours of community work service

She said Petrelli would be unlikely to reoffend, but the sentence was necessary to deter others from such offences

But Doust called for a

Continued on page 15