Charge against Alberta dental clinic employee Joanna Ridley dropped; husband Matthew ordered to stand trial in $80K steal

Medicine Hat, AB: The Medicine Hat, Alberta Police Service Major Crimes Section has charged Matthew and Joanna Ridley of Medicine Hat with Fraud Over $5000. The charges are in relation to a complaint received from the Crestwood Dental Clinic. Both of the individuals charged were employees at the clinic during the time of the fraud which took place in 2014 and amounted to losses in excess of $80,000. The funds were not recovered. Matthew Ridley, age 43, has been charged with three counts of Fraud Over $5000 and appeared in court on November 4, 2015. Joanna Ridley, age 41, has been charged with one count of Fraud Over $5000 and is due to appear in court on November 25, 2015. The victim of the fraud in this file was the Crestwood Dental Clinic business and not the individual patients of the clinic.

This case underscores how embezzlement — a specific form of financial theft — can occur even in practices with long-tenured, trusted staff.

Matthew and Joanna Ridley will go to fraud trial in April

Update: Charge Against Joanna Ridley Dropped

Following a preliminary inquiry at the Medicine Hat Courthouse in December 2017, the fraud charge against Joanna Ridley was dropped after a judge ruled the evidence against her was insufficient. Her husband, Matthew Ridley, the clinic’s manager, was ordered to stand trial on three counts of fraud over $5,000; the outcome of his trial has not been publicly reported.

Source: Medicine Hat News