TORONTO – A judge on Tuesday sentenced Rowena Villanueva, a 49-year-old “pathological gambler,” to 18 months in prison for defrauding at least 16 people the magistrate called “unsophisticated and of modest means” of close to half-a-million dollars in an investment scam.
Villanueva stood weeping before Provincial Court Justice Ford Clements and offered to kneel before her victims in a dramatic display of remorse for what she said was a deed that could not find justification but for which she was taking responsibility.
Some of her victims who attended the sentencing at the Toronto Courthouse were unconvinced, however, and thought the prison term was not enough to assuage the anguish their families suffered in incurring debts whose cash proceeds went to Villanueva’s fake investment scheme.
“I have no greater regret than the pain I caused,” said Villanueva whom a doctor had diagnosed with an “uncontrollable addiction to gambling”. “I deeply apologized to all the victims. I`m sorry,” she stressed in her tearful 10-minute plea for leniency.
Her husband, Quintin Robles, who is reportedly ill with pancreatic cancer, sat quietly by himself on the first row of a bench reserved for accused, his head down, while she made assurances that the scam they both perpetrated “will never happen again”.
Villanueva had lured unsuspecting Filipino caregivers and personal support workers to invest in a physical therapy business by promising up to 15 percent return on their investments.
“In reality, it existed in name only – no clients, no employees, no revenues . . . ” the judge said during an hour-long summation of the facts of the case. He noted that Villanueva had a “long history of gambling dating back 13 years”.
Most of the victims had taken cash advances from their credit cards. A few had sunk in monies from life savings and proceeds from insurance ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
“These victims,” said the judge, “were unsophisticated and of modest means” and called Villanueva’s scheme a “large-scale fraud”.
The judge read the names of the 16 victims some of whom were in the courtroom. He then narrated each of the individual circumstances and how Villanueva gypped them of their money.
Shortly after the judge handed the sentence, a police deputy came in, handcuffed Villanueva and took custody of her. She was allowed a few seconds to hug her husband, Quintin Robles, and then bade each other goodbye.
The Crown withdrew charges against 57-year-old Robles in view of his medical condition. #
