Over the past year, Collingwood business owner Jenny Mai has persevered through the court system to try to get back $30,000 she is owed by former client and friend Alison Glussich.
While the wheels of justice turned slowly this year, after Mai went public with her story she received an outpouring of support from the community. Some offered to help her navigate the court system, others offered words of support, and a few stories trickled in from other Collingwood residents who had found themselves in similar situations with Glussich over the years.
“All these people reached out to me because they read your article,” Mai said last week.
“At first, I felt like I was alone. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone anymore,” she said.
A year ago, the co-owner of Gold Nails in Collingwood shared with CollingwoodToday her story of planning her wedding to her now-husband Anthony Le in 2020, with Glussich offering to help them get discounted airline tickets to have the wedding in Vietnam.
The situation, however, turned sour with Mai paying nearly $30,000 but not getting any plane tickets for the money.
Mai sued Glussich in civil court and won. In January 2023, a judge ruled in Mai’s favour, ordering Glussich pay Mai $28,801.40. As of January 2024, none of the money had yet been paid back.
Over the past year, Mai’s had multiple people reach out to her, offering their own stories.
One of those stories was from Lucy Lehman.
‘Karma will get her’
For years, Lehman owned Dogs We Love Inc. in Collingwood, as well as also owning a second location in Orangeville.
She hired Glussich as a manager of the Collingwood store in 2017, and Glussich worked there for two years.
“The customers loved her and she was good at running the store,” recalled Lehman in a recent interview.
In July 2018, Lehman’s store manager in Orangeville was selected to compete in a world triathlon competition on Team Canada in Denmark. The manager was planning to travel along with her husband, and Lehman thought she’d like to tag along for the trip as well with Glussich.
Glussich offered up that as her husband was an Air Canada pilot, she could get a deal for discounted airline tickets for the four of them to take the trip.
Lehman gave Glussich $6,198.53 for three plane tickets, as she said Glussich told her at that time that she couldn’t use her own credit card. Lehman said after a series of excuses including financial and health difficulties, she and Glussich did not go on the trip and she sought to get the money back from Glussich.
She says Glussich tried to pay her back with a cheque, but when Lehman brought it to the bank, it bounced.
“Honestly, at this point, I'm still trusting her. I probably shouldn't be, and a lot of time had gone by,” said Lehman. “It just kept going on and on.”
Due to the same health issues, Lehman said Glussich stopped showing up to work as much.
In Aug. 2019, Glussich officially resigned.
In Nov. 2019, Lehman sued Glussich civilly for the $6,579.48 she was owed between the plane tickets and $380 in petty cash at the Collingwood store that went missing the same week Glussich tendered her resignation.
A judge ruled in her favour in March 2020, ordering Glussich pay back the amount with interest.
After that, Lehman says Glussich paid her back $3,426.32 of what she was owed, but eventually she just gave up on pushing for the rest.
“It was excuse, excuse, excuse,” said Lehman. “My husband was saying, karma will get her. At that point, that was it. I wasn’t going to continue on for the small amount (left).”
‘It was just a barrage of stupid excuses’
Liane Ellis met Glussich in 2014 through both their volunteer efforts at the Georgian Triangle Humane Society. They became fast friends, with Ellis meeting Glussich’s family on multiple occasions.
“I would have considered her my best friend here, which makes this all the more sting-y,” said Ellis in a recent interview.
So when Glussich came to Ellis in 2022 asking for money to help Glussich’s daughter immigrate to Canada from Ireland, Ellis was willing to help.
“I knew that her daughter lived in Ireland and it was kind of a bone of contention that she wanted her to become a Canadian citizen,” said Ellis. “I didn't even think twice.”
Glussich had initially asked Ellis for $30,000 that she said would sit in an account to sponsor Glussich’s daughter to come to Canada.
In text messages shared with CollingwoodToday by Ellis, Glussich promises that the money would stay in the account while the immigration process took place, and once it was over she would pay Ellis back with interest by July 2023.
However, in January 2023, Glussich came to Ellis with another proposition for the duo to go on a trip to Hawaii for two weeks. Ellis gave Glussich $7,000 for that trip, again with Glussich promising she could get Air Canada discounted tickets.
However, Ellis said she had to cancel due to her own personal illness.
“It fell through, and she couldn’t pay me back the money,” she said. “She was still my best friend at this point in time.”
Ellis said Glussich also approached her for $10,000 more for the immigration issue.
“I said to her at that point, OK, that's fine, but I had a legal agreement drawn up because...I didn't f***ing trust this. Something didn't feel right,” said Ellis.
“Then it began with the excuses. It was just a barrage of stupid excuses,” she said.
Ellis filed a police report against Glussich in September 2024, however decided against filing a civil lawsuit because Glussich’s husband made arrangements to start paying her back. In total, Ellis estimates she gave Glussich more than $50,000.
So far, Ellis says Glussich’s husband has paid back about $37,000 of that. However, the emotional toll of the situation remains.
“Nobody likes to know that they've been taken advantage of, let alone from your best friend. I don't trust anybody anymore,” she said. “I want proof of everything.”
“I've had many hours of therapy sessions trying to work through it. How do you trust your friends or how do you make friends again?” said Ellis.
‘I don’t know when this is going to end’
Glussich has skipped out on court dates multiple times over the past year. She was also charged criminally in 2022 with fraud over $5,000 for what she had done to Mai.
Currently, both the criminal and civil cases are still making their way through the court system.
Glussich last missed court on Jan. 3 of this year, and a bench warrant was issued for her arrest on Jan. 7.
Immediately following the publication of CollingwoodToday’s story last year, Glussich’s husband contacted Mai and offered to start paying her back.
But this time, Mai wasn’t taking any chances. In a video she took in her nail salon, Glussich’s husband, Doug, commits to paying Mai back all the money Alison owes over weekly instalments until it is paid off.
He paid her $3,000 the first week.
Then, the payments stopped and Mai says she hasn’t seen another payment since.
“It’s really disappointing. Sometimes, I feel like (the courts) are protecting her,” said Mai.
“How many times do I have to go (to court), and for how many more years? I don’t know when this is going to end,” she said.
For Mai, it isn’t about the money anymore. She said she has been told by the court on Jan. 3 that she will be informed once Glussich is arrested. As of Feb. 3, Mai had not heard a word.
“She needs to be punished. She knows she can get away with this. For her victims, they need to be released from this knowing there’s been justice,” she said.
CollingwoodToday sent an interview request to Glussich and her lawyer Mitchell Worsoff for this story. Speaking on Glussich’s behalf, Worsoff said she has been dealing with some health concerns and financial problems.
“(Alison) has fallen into very difficult times,” said Worsoff in an interview. “I’ve been working with Alison for the past couple of years to try to put people back into the position that they would have been had this never happened.”
“Restitution matters are owing. I’m close to settling this. I need a little bit more time to do that,” he said. “I’m optimistic that will happen within the next few weeks.”
According to files from the Attorney General’s office, two criminal charges laid against Glussich for theft under $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000 were withdrawn in August 2015.
Worsoff said Glussich doesn’t currently have a criminal record.
“Hopefully, she won’t be getting one after paying off what she has to pay,” he said.
When asked about other victims, Worsoff said there are currently no other matters before the courts, aside from the matter between Glussich and Mai.
“People owe all kinds of money all over the place and sometimes it takes time to pay them back. It doesn’t mean it’s a fraud necessarily,” said Worsoff.
While Collingwood/Blue Mountains OPP declined to provide information on this specific case noting it was currently before the courts, media relations officer Sgt. Wesley Staddon said fraud should be reported to police.
“We always welcome new information from the public that helps us further investigate and solve crimes,” he said.
If you believe you’ve been the victim of a fraud, it should be reported to police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre through their website here.