GTA woman arrested for fraud has history of fraud charges, court records show
CBC
A woman arrested as a result of a Toronto police fraud investigation has a lengthy history of fraud charges in Canada and the United States, CBC Toronto has learned.
Toronto police said in a news release last month that the force had arrested Jodi-Ann Bonnick, a 33-year-old from Kleinburg, Ont., and charged her with more than two dozen criminal offences, including making false statements to procure money, fraud over $5,000 and possession of proceeds obtained by crime.
Toronto police had previously turned to the public to help look for Bonnick, who they said in an earlier release was wanted after a victim spent over $800,000 on goods they never received.
Public records and media reports show Bonnick has a history of fraud charges in Florida and reportedly Jamaica, as well as Toronto.
According to court documents, Bonnick has multiple pending criminal charges against her for fraud in Toronto. None of the allegations have been proven in court. In an email, Bonnick's lawyer Calvin Barry said, "We have nothing to add."
A former employee told CBC that she "almost didn't believe" that Bonnick had been arrested.
"There's been so many times she's been arrested and then she's come out," Allissa Douglas, who worked for Bonnick at Bonnick's Jerk in September 2023, told CBC Toronto.
"I'm finally happy. I feel like she's finally going to get what she deserves."
Douglas said she used to admire Bonnick, as did many others in the Jamaican and Caribbean community, because she seemed to be a young entrepreneur that operated several businesses in Toronto, including a nail salon, a grocery store, a restaurant and a food truck.
"It's very hard for anyone to be successful, especially a Black woman," Douglas said. "This is someone I want(ed) to look up to."
Douglas said she was never paid during her short time employed at Bonnick's Jerk, a Dundas Street W. restaurant near Trinity Bellwoods Park that has since closed.
She filed a complaint to Ontario's Ministry of Labour after Bonnick failed to pay her for over a month's worth of wages. In May, the ministry found that Bonnick had "contravened the Employment Standards Act" and ordered her to pay Douglas, according to a copy of the decision seen by CBC Toronto.
Douglas said she's still waiting to be reimbursed.
"Once I found out all the information, it just made me double back and be like, 'You can't trust everybody,'" Douglas said.
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