Woman pleads guilty charges to one of 27 fraud-related

Paula Malandruccolo, 51, allegedly used fake IDS to obtain thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise from St. John’s businesses

An Ontario woman accused of defrauding St. John’s-area businesses by impersonating five women over two days has pleaded guilty to one of the charges against her.

Fifty-one-year-old Paula Malandruccolo pleaded guilty Monday morning, Oct. 3, to a single charge of defrauding Bell Aliant of an amount of more than $5,000 between June 6 and 7.

Her lawyer, Danny Vavasour, asked that the matter be scheduled for a speedy disposition, requesting a half-day sentencing hearing sometime in the coming weeks.

Malandruccolo still has 26 other charges, including identity fraud and multiple counts each of impersonation, uttering forged documents, unlawfully possessing the identity documents of another person, and violating the terms of a release order. It’s expected those will be addressed at her sentencing hearing.

Vavasour represented Malandruccolo in provincial court Monday by phone, while the accused attended by video from the women’s prison in Clarenville.

A Royal Newfoundland Constabulary news release issued at the time of Malandruccolo’s arrest alleged she was involved in a “fraud scheme,” using false ID — namely fake social insurance cards, permanent resident cards and a Certificate of Indian Status, with the names of five different people — to obtain valuable merchandise, including mobile phones, from metro-area businesses.