A man who broke into a local cheque cashing business late at night was sentenced to nine months of house arrest this week.
Nicholas Richard Gibbs pleaded guilty to breaking and entering as well as failing to appear in court and will spend six months under complete house arrest with an additional three months under a nightly curfew.
Police responded to the Cash Store on St. Albert Trail shortly after 1 a.m. on Nov. 7, 2009 after getting a report from a store manager about the break-in.
The store was short $2,147.50 and whoever had taken the funds had left the door slightly open, but the alarm never sounded.
Gibb’s girlfriend was employed at the store and realized he had obtained her alarm code without her knowing.
When she confronted him he confessed and they went to the RCMP.
After the charges were laid, Gibbs failed to make a court appearance and a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The submission for house arrest was a joint proposal from the Crown and defence. It initially included two years of probation after the house arrest had expired.
The probationary term was meant to ensure Gibbs returned the money he stole.
Judge John Maher said he had trouble with a sentence that put such a delay on the company getting their money.
“I don’t know why the Cash Store should be waiting for months.”
After confirming with Gibbs that he could make the payments in six months, Maher made the restitution part of the house arrest sentence instead.
While on house arrest, Gibbs will only be allowed out of his house for work and for a small handful of other exceptions.
He also fined Gibbs $150 for failing to appear in court but stressed he should pay the store back the money he stole before focusing on the fine.
A man who got into an argument with his then-girlfriend at a local business and then failed to show up in court was sentenced to the time he had already served.
Geoffery Hodgson pleaded guilty to a single count of assault and one count of failing to appear and was handed the 14 days he had already served in jail.
Hodgson went to a local auto glass dealer and started arguing with his girlfriend who had ended the relationship the night before.
He showed up at her work and began arguing with her. Her son, who also worked there, intervened and Hodgson began punching him as the fight escalated.
Hodgson told the court he thought he had dealt with the charges when he called in on his appearance date and told the court he couldn’t attend.
Judge John Maher told Hodgson that when he is charged with a criminal offence he couldn’t simply assume the matter is OK because he hasn’t heard anything.
He said it wasn’t up to the court to keep him on top of his legal matters.
“We don’t have an obligation to have you come buy our product.”
