A 75-year-old crane operator is out $1,200 after a police officer filmed him driving the wrong way down St. Albert Trail.
Robert Norton Allaire was spotted driving northbound in a southbound lane of St. Albert Trail on Feb. 2, 2013, provincial Crown prosecutor Karen Thorsrud told St. Albert Provincial Court Monday.
After several cars swerved out of his path, Allaire jumped his car over the road’s snow-covered meridian and came to a stop in front of an RCMP vehicle, the driver of which had captured the incident on video.
Red-faced and with bloodshot eyes, Allaire told the arresting officer that he had drank a beer before driving and that he was on parole, Thorsrud continued. Breath samples suggested that he had at least 100 milligrams of alcohol in 100 milligrams of his blood – the legal limit is 80.
Allaire, who appeared in court on CCTV, pleaded guilty to one count of operating a motor vehicle while having a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. “It was stupid of me,” he told Judge Bruce Garriock. “I am totally responsible for what I did.”
You were driving the wrong way on a very busy thoroughfare, Garriock told Allaire. “It certainly could have had tragic consequences.”
Garriock fined Allaire $1,200 and banned him from driving for a year.
A former public works employee will spend a year under house arrest for bilking the City of St. Albert out of almost $8,000.
Michael Jones, 43, of St. Albert pleaded guilty to one count of fraud over $5,000 in St. Albert court Monday. Jones is a former operations supervisor with St. Albert’s public works department.
Jones invoiced the city seven times for equipment and landscaping material (such as sod) while employed with the city between August 2009 and November 2011, provincial Crown prosecutor John Donahoe told the court – equipment and material he used for his own private business. “He used city accounts to get a better deal.”
The fraudulent invoices totalled $7,892.10. Jones resigned from his position when confronted with the invoices, and was charged last summer.
Donahoe noted that the man had no prior criminal record and had planned to pay the money back to the city. (He has since done so, the court heard.) He had been going through a divorce with his wife at the time, with whom he has since reconciled.
Jones, for his part, said he was “truly sorry” for his actions.
This was not a one-off incident, said Garriock, in pronouncing his sentence. “It was not spur of the moment. It seemed to be fairly planned and deliberate.”
Garriock sentenced Jones to 12 months house arrest and 40 hours of community service. Jones will have to be at his St. Albert home or his Fort McMurray apartment at all hours for the first six months of the sentence, but will be permitted to leave for specified purposes such as work and medical treatment. He will be under a 10:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew for the last six months.
Garriock also ordered Jones to repay the $7,892.10 to the City of St. Albert as well as a $100 victim’s fine surcharge.
A prominent St. Albert businessman has received a conditional discharge for twice assaulting a local woman.
D’Arcy Iseke pled guilty to two counts of assault and one count of unlawful harassment Monday in St. Albert court.
The charges stemmed from an Oct. 17, 2011 incident between Iseke and a woman with whom he had apparently been in a relationship, Donahoe told the court. After sending the woman (the complainant) text messages, Iseke showed up at her home in Oakmont and followed her inside. An argument ensued, during which Iseke grabbed the woman by the arm and the woman tried to push him out of the house.
When the woman reported the incident to police, she also told them that Iseke had struck her left arm with his right hand on Jan. 4, 2011, leaving no bruises.
Iseke also repeatedly showed up at the woman’s home from April 18 to Oct. 7, 2011, despite being told not to do so. “He seemed to refuse to not be in touch with her,” Donahoe said.
The court heard that Iseke, who was described as a prominent local businessman by defence counsel, had no criminal record and had taken relationship counselling since this incident.
Garriock gave Iseke an 18 month conditional discharge, during which he is to keep the peace, attend counselling as directed, have no contact with the complainant and to stay at least a block away from the complainant’s home. He must also pay a $50 victim’s fine surcharge.
