Man sentenced for truck theft

A 30-year-old man caught with a stolen truck received a short jail sentence Thursday following a hearing in Lethbridge provincial court.

Acting on a report of a suspicious vehicle parked at 7Eleven in Claresholm, RCMP found Robert James Dunbar sitting in the driver’s seat of a pickup truck, which had been stolen. Police noticed the vehicle identification number behind the windshield had been covered with a piece of paper and the identification plate inside the door had been removed.

Police soon realized the licence plate on the truck didn’t match the vehicle and that it had also been stolen. Dunbar was arrested, and during a search of the truck police found a single fentanyl pill in the centre console.

Dunbar, who appeared in court by closed-circuit TV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre, pleaded guilty to two counts of theft and one count of drug possession, for which he was sentenced to 15 days in jail. However, he was given credit for 15 days he already spent in custody, and won’t serve anymore time on those charges.

He still faces other charges of fraudulent concealment, possession of stolen property, theft under $5,000, tampering with a vehicle identification number, drug possession for the purpose of trafficking, and failing to comply with release conditions. He appears in court on those charges Sept. 21.

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