A 19-year-old man who was partly responsible for causing more than $14,000 damage at a construction site and crashed a car through a fence and into a backyard will pay almost $2,000 in fines, as well as restitution.
Nicholas Dean Holub pleaded guilty to three charges in connection with the two separate incidents, one count of mischief, one count of driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit and one charge of taking a motor vehicle without consent.
The first incident took place on March 12 when RCMP received a call from a security guard at the Rosedale Assisted Living construction site near the Safeway on Hebert Road. He reported hearing noises coming from within the building.
He spotted two men walking away from the building. One of them was Holub and he had a deep cut on his hand.
When officers looked inside the construction site, they found several broken windows and exit signs that had been smashed.
Holub ran afoul of the law again on May 12. On that night police got a 911 call from a resident when a car ended up in his backyard.
The car had gone through a fence and into a garden before ending up in a pond. The caller said the man ran away from the vehicle, but not before falling into the pond.
The caller was able to give police a good description of the man who had run away, adding that he was likely dripping wet.
Police found Holub a short distance. He was slurring his speech and was clearly intoxicated. When police took him back to the St. Albert detachment, his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.
The vehicle he crashed into the garden was his grandmother’s and Holub had taken it without her consent.
Crown prosecutor Jason Neustater presented Judge Charles Gardner with a joint submission for a probationary term as well as a fine and a restitution order.
Since his second arrest, Holub had been to the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission for counselling and to a residential treatment program for alcohol abuse.
Judge Charles Gardner levied the probationary term and said he was pleased to see Holub would have support in turning his life around.
“You have family support and very often young people who come before the court don’t have that.”
The probationary term was applied to the mischief charge and Holub will be required to abstain from drinking, take counselling as recommended and have no contact with his co-accused.
He was given $1,775 in fines and surcharges on the impaired driving charge, as well as a one-year driving suspension. For taking the motor vehicle without consent, he received $352 in fines and surcharges. The judge also put in place a restitution order that will require him to pay $7,380, half of the costs for the damage.
A man caught driving under the influence of alcohol for the second time was handed a stiff fine, but avoided jail time.
Maxwell Douglas Lyle pleaded guilty to a single count of driving with a blood alcohol level over the legal limit, his second such conviction. He was not sent to jail because the convictions were separated by more than a decade.
Under the criminal code, a second conviction for impaired driving carries a mandatory jail term, but only if there is less than a decade separating the two charges.
An RCMP officer was pulling out of the 7-Eleven parking lot on St. Anne Street when he noticed a woman across the street in front of the Blind Pig Pub who appeared to be signalling the officer to notice a car leaving the bar’s parking lot.
The officer followed the vehicle the woman was pointing at and eventually pulled it over.
When he did, Lyle stumbled out of the vehicle and started walking back towards the police car.
He had trouble standing and his speech was slurred. After failing the roadside test, he was transported back to the detachment. He fell asleep in the back of the car on the way back and provided a breath sample that was more than twice the legal limit.
Judge Charles Gardner handed him a $2,000 fine plus a $300 victim surcharge and prohibited him from driving for one year, though Gardner told Lyle the province would suspended him for longer than that.
