Meth-fuelled crimes cost Oliver woman two months in jail

PENTICTON – An Oliver woman facing several charges after knocking a 49-year-old woman down with her car door and driving away was sentenced in Penticton court today.

Angelene Desaray Solien, 22, will spend a total of 58 days in jail after pleading guilty to charges of assault, failure to stop at the scene of an accident, two counts of possession of stolen property under $5,000, possession of a controlled substance and breach.

Solien was sentenced by Provincial Court Judge Michelle Daneliuk in Penticton court this afternoon, Jan. 31.

Solien was found guilty of fleeing the scene after hitting the 49-year-old victim with the open door of Solien’s vehicle as she was backing up following a disagreement with the woman on Lakeshore Road in Oliver on the evening of Jan. 26.

The woman was not seriously hurt in the incident.

Solien then drove to the Lower Mainland in a 1991 Ford Taurus which had been reported stolen the day before, with the intent of living transiently in Vancouver’s tent city.

Solien, who only had a learner’s permit when she headed for the Lower Mainland as the lone occupant in the vehicle, rolled the car near Chilliwack before being apprehended.

In passing sentence, Daneliuk noted Solien was in breach of probation from a previous offence when the charges occurred.

"Unfortunately, at this time Ms. Solien has absolutely no insight into her (drug) problem,” she said, noting Solien was “very high” on methamphetamine when she committed the crimes, having taken them the entire day and had been using meth for the last month.

“In spite of that, Ms. Solien still believes that she does not have a problem,” Daneliuk said.

“The offences associated with these matters before the court, except for the breach, all relate to the use of drugs, and the court sees on a daily basis many individuals that are here in part due to their use of drugs and the results of that use of drugs,” Judge Daneliuk said, adding it was partly a social problem and partly a medical problem. “Unfortunately, the courts are very well equipped to deal with those aspects of the problem, and we’re left to deal with the fallout of that, which is the criminal conduct."

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