A woman who passed herself off as a nurse at B.C. Women’s Hospital and View Royal Surgical Centre will spend a total of seven years in prison after being sentenced in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday.
Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes said Brigitte Cleroux, 52, “profoundly violated” the victims who had placed themselves in the care of the medical system, at times when they were unconscious or extremely vulnerable.
Cleroux pleaded guilty to multiple charges of assault, fraud, impersonating a nurse and forgery in connection with cases at the hospital, a dentist’s office in Surrey and View Royal Surgical Centre.
She had used the identity and credentials of a real nurse and created fake resumés, the court heard.
Cleroux was on parole at the time of the Surrey offences.
Holmes said Cleroux’s actions damaged public trust in the medical system — something that came up repeatedly in victim impact statements presented to the court.
“Ms. Cleroux used a weapon each time she inserted a needle,” Holmes said.
She said Cleroux giving people drugs such as fentanyl and hydromorphone was potentially dangerous and, done improperly, “could cause serious health consequences.”
Holmes said many of the people who came into contact with Cleroux have moved on from their doctors or specialists due to trust issues. Some have become distanced from friends and family and had to leave their jobs.
Others have suffered from having their medical records scrutinized by strangers as part of the investigation, Holmes said.
The court heard some are under care for mental issues and one individual has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Some have lost trust in almost everyone in their lives,” Holmes said.
Several victims told the court their faith in the health-care system had been shattered.
The nurse whose credentials and identity Cleroux used has changed her name. Her identity is protected by a publication ban.
“M.S. had to abandon a profession identity she built in her own name because Ms. Cleroux stole and contaminated that name,” Holmes said.
The new sentence extends by four years one Cleroux is currently serving in Ontario, as some of the sentences were applied consecutively to that earlier sentencing.
Cleroux earlier apologized to her victims. She acknowledged she had caused damage to the B.C. medical system, saying people deserved to be treated by medical professionals.
She pleaded guilty July 19 because she was “remorseful and ashamed” by what she had done, she said.
Holmes had to balance sentencing principles given the varied nature of the charges. The assault charges were treated as sentences consecutive to others, given their impact and gravity. Others were to run concurrently with other sentences, the judge said.
She said she also recognized the fact that Cleroux has a lengthy criminal record for crimes of dishonesty and fraud, totalling 67 convictions.
In one past case, Holmes said, Cleroux duped a person who was 102 years old out of $23,000.
One doctor reported that Cleroux lacked self-awareness and had a profound lack of insight into her behaviour and how it affected others.
The court heard earlier that Cleroux had impersonated the specific nurse and used her credentials to get work at BC Women’s Hospital from June 2020 to June 2021. She also used that information to sign documents for Blue Cross and pension coverage.
Payments were going into her own bank account, as she had crossed out her name and written in the other person’s name on personal cheques to set up direct deposit.
The assault allegations came from Cleroux using needles to inject patients without consent to being injected by a non-medical professional.
In the case of View Royal Surgical Centre, the allegation was fraud exceeding $5,000 for using the real nurse’s identification to get work. Her work involved narcotics medication, managing pain and discharge issues.
The court heard Cleroux was a team leader in a post-anaesthetic care unit at B.C. Women’s Hospital dealing with such things as blood transfusions and heart monitoring.
However, complaints soon began to start trickling in, some about a lack of professionalism, others about poor nursing skills or conduct.
The Crown had asked for eight years, which, added to the seven-year sentence she is serving in Ontario for similar crimes, would total 15 years.
Defence lawyer Guillaume Garih, however, suggested five to six years concurrent to the Ontario five-year sentence, which has about three years remaining.
Garih said the crimes across Canada were part of a spree, and that the sentence handed down by Holmes should reflect that.
