Almost immediately after receiving house arrest for defrauding a cancer charity of tens of thousands of dollars, Lily Ayelazuno began plotting how to get out of it.
There was an exception to her conditional sentence — allowing her out of the house for work. And so, the 31-year-old convicted fraudster created work contracts and pay stubs for jobs that didn’t exist.
She claimed she was a research assistant at University Health Network, and she produced a contract displaying the signature of a senior vice-president who really did work there. And she said she was working as a bartender at a Joey restaurant, in a bid to have her GPS ankle monitor removed, complete with fake email correspondence with her supposed manager — again, someone who really did work at the restaurant.
The ruse was soon uncovered, landing Ayelazuno back in a Toronto courtroom last Wednesday before the same judge who imposed the conditional sentence last year. A very disappointed Ontario Court Justice Hafeez Amarshi made it clear the leniency shown by the court would not continue. The conditional sentence was terminated. Ayelazuno was going to jail.
“I was impressed by what you told me about your educational and work ambitions and wanting to change your life, but what I’ve realized is that what you say and what you do is inconsistent,” the judge told Ayelazuno.
“And, in the end, it doesn’t matter how bright and talented you are. It won’t amount to much if you’re fundamentally dishonest, which is the conclusion I’ve arrived at.”
In sending Ayelazuno to jail for the remainder of her sentence — 21 months — Amarshi said he was struck by the amount of effort she had put in to mislead everyone.
“If you’d just put in that much effort and energy into pro-social conduct, given what I know of you, you would have had some really positive outcomes in your life. Instead, you find yourself back in this courtroom being sentenced.”
Ayelazuno was permitted to hug her mother in the public gallery before being taken away by an officer.
Ayelazuno’s scheme quickly unravels after ‘multiple instances of deceit’
The conditional sentence was imposed last May after Ayelazuno pleaded guilty to defrauding Ovarian Cancer Canada of over $60,000. A former donor services administrator and executive assistant to the CEO at the organization, Ayelazuno had been accused of making unauthorized purchases with company credit cards over nine months in 2020, and then trying to cover it up by altering bank statements.
She provided partial restitution to the charity ahead of her sentencing; that, along with her prospects for rehabilitation, contributed to the judge’s decision last year to impose a conditional sentence.
A fake University Health Network pay stub provided by Lily Ayelazuno.
Ontario Court of Justice exhibit
A conditional sentence is a term of imprisonment of less than two years served in the community, typically involving a period of house arrest as well as a curfew. If offenders fail to follow their conditions, the judge can send them directly to jail for the rest of their sentence.
Just one week after her house arrest began in May 2025, Ayelazuno reported the UHN and Joey jobs to her conditional sentence supervisor, Anosha Malek, who demanded proof. Four days later, Ayelazuno faxed over a UHN pay stub from December 2024 and a services agreement confirming her employment. She later sent a second services agreement from UHN, as well as pay stubs from Joey.
The following month, Ayelazuno applied to the court to have her GPS ankle monitor removed, saying it was undermining her ability to be gainfully employed as she had to take a leave from her part-time job at Joey because “the uniform does not adequately cover” the device — a job she claimed in court records was to help pay restitution for her fraud conviction
She filed with the court email correspondence between herself and a Joey manager, Andrew Jebaili, in which she asks for a short-term leave to “handle some personal and challenging matters that have suddenly come up.” Jebaili responds that he’ll let the HR department know: “In the meantime, please focus on what you need to take care of.”
The Crown had concerns about the documents Ayelazuno had filed; Crown attorney Sandra Duffey told Malek in an email that some of the material was “inconsistent and implausible.” The hearing to remove the ankle monitor was put on hold while Toronto police investigated.
An email supposedly sent by Joey manager Andrew Jebaili to Lily Ayelazuno that a judge concluded was “wholly fabricated.”
Ontario Court of Justice exhibit
Malek also became suspicious in July after Ayelazuno asked to be allowed out of the house on two separate days that month to work at a UHN research lab.
“She was advised that I would need to contact UHN to verify her employment,” Malek wrote in a report filed with the court. “However, she declined, expressing concern that such contact could jeopardize her position and result in her termination.”
Malek called the police. She did not ultimately authorize the house arrest exceptions, but Amarshi found that doesn’t mitigate the seriousness of Ayelazuno’s actions.
“Almost upon imposition of the (conditional sentence), Ms. Ayelazuno planned and schemed to undermine the sentence,” Amarshi said.
“It is clear that Ms. Ayelazuno, from the outset, had no intention of abiding by the conditions of the sentence imposed by this court. There are multiple instances of deceit, involving some level of sophistication as well as effort and planning.”
Both UHN service agreements contained the signature of Bradly Wouters, executive vice-president of science and research. But Maggie Mercer, UHN’s director of people and culture, told the police detective it appeared Wouters’ signature had been cut and pasted.
Ayelazuno had, in fact, worked at UHN, Mercer said, but records showed she had been terminated for cause in July 2024, almost a year before her house arrest was imposed. Mercer concluded that Ayelazuno had “manipulated” her last pay stub from UHN to make it appear more recent.
For his part, Wouters told the detective that he would be involved in the hiring of senior research staff and scientists, but not for a position at a more junior level like the one Ayelazuno was claiming to have. The electronic signature on the service agreements was certainly his, Wouters said, but he had no recollection of signing them.
“I readily concluded that the UHN contracts and UHN pay stubs provided by Ms. Ayelazuno were not authentic,” Amarshi said, noting that the defence also conceded that Ayelazuno had breached her conditional sentence on this point.
Jebaili, the Joey manager, confirmed the pay stubs Ayelazuno had provided were not issued by Joey. He had worked with Ayelazuno, but it was at a different Joey location around 2020, and he had not seen her since. She had emailed him in May 2025 looking for work, but he never offered her employment. And so there was no way he would have been emailing her in 2025 about taking a leave from her supposed bartender job at Joey.
“The contents of that email were wholly fabricated,” Amarshi said. “The Crown has established that Ms. Ayelazuno did not work at Joey Restaurant Group in 2025.”
‘The facts of this case call out for one clear outcome’
Testifying at the hearing for breaching her conditional sentence, Ayelazuno said she was dealing with “ongoing health concerns,” Amarshi said in his ruling. “She detailed difficulties she was experiencing living at home with her parents, specifically her father and his reaction to the GPS monitoring device.”
She testified that she had signed a lease on a new place, obtained actual employment, and is enrolled in the University of Toronto’s school of continuing education.
Duffey, the Crown attorney, argued for the “full collapse” of the conditional sentence and sending Ayelazuno to jail for the remainder of her sentence. Defence lawyer Tonya Kent urged the judge to keep the conditional sentence in place with modified conditions, or, alternatively, that her client go to jail for part of the sentence, followed by a resumption of the conditional sentence. Kent highlighted her client’s counselling efforts and her current employment.
But the judge found Ayelazuno’s prospects for rehabilitation to be “dim,” as she has shown little insight into her actions and poses a risk for reoffending. Amarshi cited case law noting that segments of the population “remain suspicious” that conditional sentences are not imprisonment and that the conditions are not rigorously enforced.
“I accept that the legitimacy of the conditional sentencing regime is in part dependent on the public’s confidence that a conditional sentence is a credible alternative to jail, and when that order is undermined, serious consequences should follow,” the judge said.
“I have determined that the facts of this case call out for one clear outcome.”
Ayelazuno may have thought she had fooled everyone, including the judge, to whom she sent a letter last year as part of her bid to remove the GPS ankle monitor.
“I have made meaningful efforts to transform my life, both personally and professionally,” she wrote.
“I view this sentence as an opportunity for growth and accountability, and I have no intention of doing anything to jeopardize it.”