Car theft earns 90-day sentence

Taking grandma’s car without her permission has netted a Lethbridge woman a short jail sentence.

Nicole Marie Hormoth pleaded guilty Wednesday in Lethbridge provincial court to one count of taking a motor vehicle without consent and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Court was told Hormoth, who appeared in court by closed-circuit TV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre where she is serving a sentence on other matters, was at her grandmother's house Feb. 8 when she went into her grandmother’s bedroom and took her car keys from her purse.

Hormoth, 30, was originally charged with motor vehicle theft but the Crown explained Hormoth didn’t intend to steal her grandmother’s car, but borrowed it, against her grandmother’s wishes, to attend a methadone clinic.

Hormoth also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to attend court and two counts of possession of stolen property.

In November 2015 she was caught with a stolen car after a witness reported seeing an apparently drunken person leaving the vehicle. When police arrived to investigate they discovered the car had been stolen and they found Hormoth’s purse inside.

Then on Sept. 30 of last year a witness notified police that two people were arguing outside a car when one of them walked away even though the car door was still open. When Hormoth returned to the car police were already there and had discovered the licence plate had been stolen.

Hormoth was sentenced to 90 days jail for each of the stolen property offences and five days for the failing to appear charges, but the sentences will run concurrently to the sentence for taking her grandmother’s car.

She was also given credit for 50 days already spent in custody, leaving her 40 days to serve, and she was placed on probation for one year, during which time she is not to have any contact with her grandmother except to pick up her belongings.

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