A community "nuisance" will spend some time in jail after a series of minor thefts.
Augustine Thomas appeared in Estevan provincial court on Monday after being denied bail last week. On Monday he pleaded guilty to a number of charges, including possessing stolen goods, theft, leaving the scene of an accident and some breaches of conditions.
One of the charges stemmed from an incident in which Thomas got his truck stuck in a ditch in September 2012. Thomas had two dirt bikes in the back of his vehicle. A call was made to police who attended the scene of the accident.
Upon investigating the dirt bikes were found to have been stolen on May 30. His Legal Aid lawyer noted Thomas was not accused of stealing the bikes, but simply having them in the vehicle he was driving.
The bikes were returned to the owner undamaged.
Thomas also pleaded guilty to a hit and run in the parking lot of a local lounge as well as a theft from a local 7-Eleven.
The Crown and defence agreed to a jail term of 45 days.
"It's important to note Mr. Thomas is making a general nuisance of himself," said the Crown, who said most of his offences are related to alcohol consumption.
In other court proceedings, a first time impaired driving matter quickly became an expensive one for the accused.
Red Deer resident Trevor Roy was given a $4,000 fine and minimum one-year driving suspension for an impaired charge after refusing to provide two clean samples.
During the incident in question, Roy left a local bar, and after driving about a block, put his F-350 in the ditch, getting the truck stuck. When police arrived, he had been spinning his tires for some time and wasn't able to get out of the ditch himself.
He did provide one sample of .210 after he was arrested but wouldn't provide another, so the reading isn't binding as an elevated sample.
Judge Karl Bazin ordered the $4,000 fine, taking into consideration the large vehicle Roy was driving and the manner in which he was driving, losing control of the vehicle very quickly.
The range in fine for a first impaired driving offence was recently elevated to between $1,000 and $5,000 from between $1,000 and $2,000.
