Two panhandlers get off with community service
PENTICTON – Two Penticton men charged for panhandling were each sentenced to an absolute discharge after completing community service.
Jordan B. Ricketts and Erwin A. Sedlmeier were both charged with one count of soliciting a person in a vehicle after panhandling at an intersection in Penticton earlier this year.
Both men completed 15 hours of community service and are receiving mental health treatment. The men resorted to panhandling when their individual disability pension cheques ran out.
“By the time you get to the end of the month, the pot is dry,” said Jim Pennington, defence counsel.
They panhandle to make up for the deficit, he said.
Ricketts and Sedlmeier were present in Penticton Provincial Court Thursday when Judge Meg Shaw announced the absolute discharge of both cases.
She said the completion of community service and continued effort to receive mental health treatment were sufficient punishment given the circumstances of the charges.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Meaghan Archer at marcher@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
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One response
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What a world we live in, people can barely get by & to have to resort to this in the first place is really quite sad, but lets make their day worse by charging them! How aboutthe people that make these laws, live off what they expect the average joe to!
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