The former secretary-treasurer of a cash-strapped London branch of the Royal Canadian Legion has been charged with stealing $61,548 from wartime heroes. Traci Sampson, 44, who worked 11 years at the Duchess of Kent branch, was charged yesterday with theft.

The legion at 499 Hill St. last month revealed it was having trouble paying $256,000 in back sales taxes to the federal and provincial governments and was in danger of folding.

The troubles started when members noticed a couple of years ago that hundreds of thousands of dollars were missing over the last 10 years and sales weren't properly recorded, said club vice-president Arthur Stenning.

The legion learned Sampson was charged yesterday.

"It won't do anything here to help us (financially)," Stenning said. "But now the charges are laid, it will perhaps put more teeth into our argument with the tax people that our money was stolen and hopefully they will give us some consideration.

"We're not trying to avoid our bills, but we are trying to get things so we can handle our debt and not go out of business.''

The legion has scheduled meetings with MPs and MPPs, hoping they'll approach their governments for help to repay or drop the legion's debt.

Stenning said London-North -Centre MPP Deb Matthews recently visited the legion and expressed "sympathy'' over its financial problems.

"They can't pay their bills and it puts them in a really, really tough spot," she said. "They obviously have a pretty compelling case. I can't make them any promises, but I will do my best to find out if there are any options open to them.''

Police were first called in to investigate a possible fraud in September 2001.

Sampson resigned from the legion a month later.

Stenning said the legion was only able to supply police with records for a two-year period for their investigation, but believe up to $400,000 is missing from the club coffers.

He said that explains why the legion faces huge payments in back taxes and penalties. Despite $1,000 monthly payments over the last couple of years, the legion still owes $95,000 in GST and $161,000 in PST, Stenning said.

Sampson is to appear in court in London on Feb. 3.