TORONTO -- An Ontario woman was waiting for a $14,000 cheque to arrive in the mail in November 2019 – but it never came.
The cheque was sent to the wrong address and it’s caused Peterborough woman Shelby Hulme a year and a half or problems.
"I was sad, I was angry, I was mad," Hulme told CTV News Toronto.
Hulme lives with an intellectual disability and is helped with her financial affairs by her mother Gayle Wilson.
She was the victim of an extremely violent crime many years ago and on the advice of a lawyer presented her case to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, which compensates victims in Ontario for pain and suffering.
Hulme was awarded $14,400 but by the time the cheque was sent she had moved to a new address.
When Wilson inquired about the missing cheque, she said she was told it had already been cashed.
The cheque was from CIBC, but it was sent to Hulme's old address.
Someone else picked it up, took it to an RBC bank machine and was able to cash it into their account.
"I said how does your bank cash a cheque like that with someone else's signature on it and no one caught it?" Wilson told CTV News Toronto.
The man who cashed the cheque has since been charged with fraud.
"The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) understood the matter was forwarded to police for investigation," a spokesperson for Tribunals Ontario told CTV News Toronto. "The CICB does not conduct fraud investigations."
Wilson said her daughter's case was stuck between the compensation board and RBC while it while it was under investigation.
"All we want for Shelby is to get her money back. I have been trying for a year and a half and I’m so worn out on it and Shelby is very upset," Wilson said.
When CTV News Toronto reached out to RBC, they reviewed the case and returned the funds to CIBC. The compensation board then sent a new cheque to Hulme.
"The CICB took the appropriate steps to have this matter resolved, and payment was reissued," the Tribunals spokesperson said.
After almost a year and a half, Hulme got her money which was a relief for her.
"I'm going to leave it in the bank for a rainy day," said Hulme.
An RBC spokesperson told CTV News Toronto on Thursday that "While they are not clients of ours, we have been working closely with Gayle Wilson and her daughter and our focus and attention has been on assisting them with getting a replacement cheque from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. As a result of our investigation, RBC returned the funds to the cheque issuer’s financial institution (CIBC). We are very pleased the funds have now been returned to her."
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board is no longer taking on new cases. There is now the Victim Quick Response Program which can help provide support if you're the victim of a violent crime in Ontario.
