Serial nurse impersonator Brigitte Cleroux was sentenced to seven years in prison for a long list of crimes committed in B.C. between 2019 and 2021, including impersonation, forgery, fraud, theft, assault and assault with a weapon.
Cleroux, 52, used stolen and forged documents to get work as a dental assistant in Surrey, B.C., and as a nurse at B.C. Women’s Hospital in Vancouver and at the private View Royal Surgical Centre in Victoria.
The assault and assault with a weapon charges relate to her injecting patients who did not consent to being treated by an unlicensed nurse.
Cleroux has previously been convicted of similar crimes in Quebec, Alberta and Ontario and is currently serving a seven-year prison term in Ontario for impersonating a nurse at two Ottawa clinics.
B.C. Supreme Court Associate Chief Justice Heather Holmes walked the court through a complicated sentencing decision on the 11 charges Cleroux pleaded guilty to, noting that the overall effect will be to extend Cleroux’s Ontario jail time by three to four years because only a portion of the B.C. sentence is to be served consecutively to the Ontario term.
A victim who Cleroux treated in the gynecological unit of B.C. Women’s Hospital, said she was disappointed with the sentence.
“The total sentence doesn’t seem to be appropriate to the impact that her crimes had on individuals, on the nurse she impersonated and on the overall public trust in the institutions that she took advantage of,” said the woman, whose name is under a publication ban.
The woman said she experienced excellent care at B.C. Women’s Hospital, including for the births of her three children. But when she encountered Cleroux during a procedure four years ago, which included Cleroux administering fentanyl, she immediately sensed something wasn’t right.
“In the first minute of my interactions with her, it was clear. I became suspicious that she was just not a very qualified individual… There were so many examples of things that she did and said that were egregious,” she said.
The woman said she is involved in a civil suit and proposed class action against B.C. Women’s Hospital.
Cleroux stole the identity and registration number of a real nurse and used those with other forged and falsified documents to get hired in Vancouver and Victoria.
The real nurse, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban, has been forced to change her name as a result.
In total, Cleroux treated close to 900 patients in the one year she worked at B.C. Women’s and another 56 — including children — in the three weeks she worked at the private clinic in Victoria.
Holmes said given Cleroux’s long criminal record and history of deep-seated dishonesty, “the prospects of rehabilitation seem slim for Ms. Cleroux.”