Jail is one sure way to keep him from driving

PENTICTON – A Penticton man who has trouble staying in touch with his bail supervisor will not have that to worry about for several weekends at least, after making an appearance in Penticton court yesterday.

Sylvain Modeste Laurent Demers was given a 45-day intermittent jail sentence yesterday, March 14, following guilty pleas on charges of possession of stolen property, breaching probation and driving while prohibited.

Demers faced possession of stolen property charges stemming from a Nov. 18, 2014 incident in which police found him with a stolen Ford pickup. Demers then breached bail conditions by failing to report to his probation officer in July of 2015. On Nov. 3, 2015, Penticton RCMP arrrested Demers in the Wal Mart parking lot after a check of the vehicle plate revealed it to be inactive. Police then discovered Demers was a prohibited driver. He was released on a promise to appear.

Six days later, police stopped Demers again on a Summerland street. The vehicle he was driving was impounded once they discovered again his prohibited driving status and he was again released on a promise to appear.

Crown Prosecutor Kurt Froehlich told court Demers was currently in a common-law relationship. He was formerly involved in the drug trade, and had recently resided in places deemed “problematic” by police, who also said most of their interaction with Demers on the street had been positive.

Froehlich said Demers had a stable upbringing, currently lived in a stable relationship, but struggled with his community supervision, breaching court orders four times in the past 18 months. He also had a criminal driving record.

Defence lawyer James Pennington said his client was “sloppy” in his failure to report, noting a simple phone call “usually gets rid of a lot of problems."

He said Demers was assisting another driver who was falling asleep when police found him behind the wheel at Wal Mart. During the Summerland incident, Demers was helping out friends who had been drinking and were too drunk to drive.

“He was sober, that’s why he was behind the wheel,” Pennington said, noting Demers' driving infractions weren’t just flagrant instances of him thumbing his nose at authority.

Judge Gale Sinclair said Demers’ actions required some jail time, sentencing Demers to 30 days for possession of stolen property over $5,000, 10 days for breach and five days for driving while prohibited. He’ll also pay a $500 fine on two counts of driving while prohibited in addition to facing a one year driving prohibition on each count, and one year’s probation. He’ll be allowed to serve his 45 day jail sentence intermittently at the Penticton RCMP lockup.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.