Andrea Giesbrecht, accused in dead infants case, to stand trial on fraud charges

Andrea Giesbrecht, the Winnipeg woman accused of concealing the remains of six infants in a storage locker, will stand trial on unrelated fraud charges after negotiations toward a plea deal fell through.

Giesbrecht, 41, is accused of defrauding Employment and Income Assistance of more than $5,000 between Dec. 1, 2011, and May 1, 2012.

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She has also been charged with fraud under $5,000 for allegedly defrauding Xtra Cash Ltd., a payday advance business, in the period between Dec. 12, 2012, and March 21, 2013.

At a hearing Monday afternoon in Winnipeg, Giesbrecht's lawyer, Matt Gould, said his client had planned to plead guilty to all three fraud charges as long as there was no jail time.

Crown prosecutors did not agree to the proposal for no jail time, so instead she and the lawyers will meet again on July 20 to set trial dates.

"She was willing to acknowledge that paying back was appropriate and that by insisting on jail time, or at least the position of jail time from the Crown, it left the defence in a position where we felt we had no option except to set these matters for trial," Gould told reporters outside court.

"Because we were unable to come to a resolution with the Crown attorney today, that leaves all of these matters pending. That means there's no guilty pleas, they are unresolved and it leaves the complainants in the matters to have this stretch into the future, which is what we were trying to avoid."

Gould said it could take about a year for the matter to go to trial.

Giesbrecht previously pleaded guilty to fraud over $5,000 for "borrowing" $7,850 from an elderly woman, then writing bad cheques and not repaying her.

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Court has heard that Giesbrecht, also known as Andrea Naworynski, had struggled with a gambling addiction for at least 14 years.

She breached a probation order, related to the fraud case involving the senior, not to participate in gambling.

Giesbrecht faces six counts of concealing bodies of infants after the remains were found on Oct. 20, 2014, inside a U-Haul storage locker that she had been renting. She will go to trial on those charges in April 2016.