Halton Regional Police have arrested a 32-year-old woman from Milton, Ont. and charged her with extortion, fraud over $5,000 and pretending to practise witchcraft.

Dorie "Madeena" Stevenson was arrested Thursday after a five-month investigation, according to police. Officers also recovered evidence from her property after executing a search warrant.

One of Stevenson's alleged victims told police they had been defrauded of more than $60,000 after consulting with the woman, who owns the registered business Milton Psychic.

When victims cannot be squeezed any longer, the perpetrators rely on the victim's embarrassment in not contacting police.Det.-Sgt. Dave Constantini

"What we typically see is a tendency for perpetrators to take advantage of persons when they are in their most vulnerable state," Det.-Sgt. Dave Constantini said in a press release. "Victims are manipulated into believing something bad will happen to them unless they remit cash."

"When victims cannot be squeezed any longer, the perpetrators rely on the victim's embarrassment in not contacting police."

Witchcraft in the Criminal Code

Stevenson was charged with "Witchcraft — Fortune Telling," police said. Section 365 of Canada's Criminal Code defines witchcraft in the context of fraud as:

Every one who pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment or conjuration; undertakes, for a consideration, to tell fortunes; or pretends from his skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science to discover where or in what manner anything that is supposed to have been stolen or lost may be found.

Other fairly recent cases where people were charged with pretending to practise witchcraft include:

A Spanish newspaper producer in Toronto who promised to lift a woman's family curse for $14,000

A Mississauga man who in 2013 had charges dropped after he agreed to pay $23,000 in restitution to his two victims

In 2009, a Toronto woman convinced a lawyer to fork over tens of thousands of dollars by claiming she was the manifestation of his dead sister

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