Former RM official charged with financial crimes a no-show in court, at RCMP detachment

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This article was published 25/03/2025 (202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former municipal official charged with financial crimes was wanted on an arrest warrant that was issued and put on hold after she failed to appear in court twice this week.

Amber Fisher, 40, is accused of faking a cyberattack against the RM of Gilbert Plains in an apparent attempt to cover more than $500,000 she allegedly stole from the community in 2020 and 2021.

RCMP arrested Fisher in January and charged her with fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000 and use of proceeds knowing it was obtained by the commission of an offence. She was released from custody with conditions, including a requirement to appear in person for court until she secured legal council.

Court records reviewed by the Free Press show Fisher missed a court appearance in Dauphin on Monday, prompting provincial court Judge Geoffrey Bayly to release a warrant for her arrest. Bayly first issued the warrant a week earlier, after Fisher failed to appear on March 18.

Bayly initially held the warrant under the presumption Fisher might be confused about her requirement to appear in person, court heard, but on Monday the judge said that excuse was no longer acceptable.

“Mrs. Fisher knew to be here, she knew to be in court on the 18th. She’s not here. The endorsed warrant that I had issued previously but held to today’s date will be released to be executed by the RCMP,” he said.

Defence lawyer Brett Gladstone, confirmed Tuesday afternoon Bayly put the arrest warrant on hold for Fisher again after the hearing was concluded.

On Monday, articling student Catherine Rogers, speaking by phone on behalf of Gladstone, told the judge Fisher paid his office a partial retainer, but he had not yet agreed to represent her in court.

Both Rogers and Gladstone had been acting as friends of the court, and were not officially Fisher’s legal counsel at the time of the hearing.

Fisher’s next hearing is scheduled for March 31. Questions about who will represent her in court will be settled before then, Gladstone said in an email statement.

Gladstone had been in “good contact” with Fisher ahead of her scheduled appearances, Rogers said during on March 18.

The student was seemingly surprised when Bayly phoned her Monday to ask whether she knew where Fisher was.

“Is Mrs. Fisher present there in the court room?” Rogers asked. “She’s indicated that she would be in attendance.”

Manitoba RCMP spokesperson Sgt. Paul Manaigre confirmed police have an arrest warrant for Fisher, but said it was issued because she hadn’t appeared at the detachment to provide her fingerprints.

In an email statement on Tuesday, he said Mounties had not yet been notified of her subsequent failures to appear in court.

No new charges had been laid against Fisher as of Tuesday, a provincial court clerk said.

Gilbert Plains is located 360 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, with a population of about 1,600.

Fisher began working at the municipality in 2018 and was named its highest-ranking bureaucrat in 2020.

Last year, a court ordered her wages be garnished after Gilbert Plains successfully sued her in Court of King’s Bench. The court issued a default judgment against her in November 2023, after she failed to mount a defence to the lawsuit.

Fisher is accused in the court papers of making 33 electronic transfers of more than $15,000 from the municipality’s account to her own over the course of about 11 months. The judgment ordered Fisher to pay $525,000, plus annual interest of five per cent and costs.

On July 28, 2021, Fusion Credit Union notified Gilbert Plains officials of “substantial outflows” from the municipality’s bank account to an account at another credit union in Fisher’s name, the statement of claim said.

The municipality suspended Fisher on Aug. 3, 2021, as it investigated. She allegedly told the municipal council she was the victim of a cyberattack and officials began a fraud investigation. She was reinstated soon after and returned to work before being suspended again in May 2022.

A report by accounting firm Meyers Norris Penny completed in late 2022 found Fisher had transferred about $532,000 from the municipality to her bank account. She was fired after the report was completed.

Gilbert Plains Reeve James Manchur attended both recent court appearances, anticipating Fisher might submit a plea for the charges against her. He noted several concerned citizens were also in court during the March 18 hearing.

Manchur said Fisher’s failure to participate in court feels familiar. She demonstrated a reluctance to co-operate in both the forensic audit and the criminal investigation, he said.

“It hasn’t helped our view of herself in the whole situation,” he said.

Manchur said he believes Fisher has paid only one instalment toward settling the civil suit judgment.

The municipality was able to recover about $400,000 through insurance, after accounting for a $100,000 deductible, he said.

Gilbert Plains is considering introducing a special levy to cover a financial deficit caused by accounting deficiencies and legal fees linked to Fisher’s alleged theft and fraud.

“It’s not necessarily lost money, it’s just money that wasn’t accounted for properly,” he said. “A lot of it is because of her incompetence in the past that didn’t state our accurate financial records while she was our CAO.”

While the civil suit has now been settled, the criminal charges against Fisher have not been tested in court and she is presumed innocent.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca