The conditional discharge given to a Mayo woman who stole more than $8,000 from her employer was appropriate, the Yukon Court of Appeal has decided.

Teresa Samson, 35, was granted the discharge, which leaves her with no criminal record, and one year of probation last summer.

The Crown appealed that sentence, arguing it was unfit.

The appeal court judges disagreed following a January hearing in Vancouver.

“In the case of Ms. Samson, the sentencing judge was convinced that the entry of a conviction against her may have significant adverse repercussions in light of the possibility of her running for a position on her First Nation’s council,” wrote Chief Justice Robert Bauman in the three-judge panel’s decision, released Tuesday.

“That possibility was sufficiently real in the circumstances to satisfy the first condition for a discharge.”

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun’s Elections Act doesn’t allow anyone with a criminal record for theft to run.

Samson stole $8,300 from the Mayo ambulance service from February 2011 to September 2012 when she was an employee there.

Before that, she worked for the First Nation, but was let go from that job in 2010.

“This took a heavy toll on her, and she began to self-medicate with illicit drugs,” the court of appeal decision states. “She attributes her criminality to this breakdown.”

When Samson’s employer found out what she’d done, she accepted responsibility and repaid $1,600 less than a week later.

She co-operated with the RCMP, entered a guilty plea and had repaid all the money by the time she was sentenced last summer.

By that time, she’d also been clean of illicit drugs for 18 months.

Samson has also enrolled in a four-year First Nations governance degree program at Yukon College and gotten a job in the Na-Cho Nyak Dun’s housing and wellness departments. She has expressed interest in running for council, the decision says.

A mother of two, Samson has no prior criminal record.

At the time of sentencing, Judge Michael Cozens noted her remorse and that she’s at a low risk of reoffending.

Cozens said a jail sentence is typical for a breach-of-trust theft, but this was a “rare and exceptional” case where a discharge was appropriate.

“Having regard to the particular circumstances of this offence and this offender, the sentence is not a substantial and marked departure from the range established by previous decisions,” the appeal judges said.