VANCOUVER — A fake nurse who "used a weapon each time she inserted a needle" in patients has been sentenced to another four years in prison on top of the remaining three years she is already serving in Ontario, a British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled. Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said Friday that the prospects of rehabilitation for Brigitte Cleroux "seem slim," after she detailed the woman's extensive criminal history in several Canadian provinces. Cleroux pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, forgery, assault and assault with a weapon in July arising from three indictments for crimes committed in Vancouver, Victoria and Surrey, B.
C. The court heard how Cleroux was on parole for crimes of "dishonesty" in Ontario and moved to B.C.
in early 2019, where she applied for a position at a Surrey dental clinic under a fake name. While working at the clinic, Holmes said, Cleroux stole cheques, bilking the clinic of around $8,000, before she left the job in March 2020. Three months later, she began working at B.
C. Women's Hospital as a full-time nurse by using the name of a real nurse who was on leave at the time. Holmes said the woman she impersonated, whose name is under a publication ban, has since changed her name.
The judge said the woman Cleroux impersonated "has had to abandon the professional identity she built in her name because Ms. Cleroux stole and contaminated that name and identity to the point of destruction." The judge broke down how Cleroux used "num.