Four months for man who stole generator off food truck, tried to sell it

False ID

A four-month jail sentence was handed down to a man who stole a heavy generator off the back of a local food truck, and tried to resell it.

David Wayne Messervey entered guilty pleas Tuesday at the Medicine Hat Courthouse to theft over $5,000 and trafficking in stolen property, and will have 34 days left of his sentence due to time served.

The incident occurred Aug. 13, when Messervey and a coaccused were at another business, and proceeded to rip the heavy generator off a nearby food truck, putting it in the coaccused’s truck, and then driving it to the co-accused’s storage locker.

A few days later, Messervey posted an ad on the online classified site kijiji for the generator. The owner recognized the generator, and contacted police.

A man with a habit of falsely identifying himself to police as his brother received Tuesday an 82-day sentence.

Michael Shears pled guilty to three counts of impersonation to avoid arrest and other charges, and was granted the opportunity to serve the 41 days that remain of his sentence — once pretrial custody was taken into account — on weekends.

In the first incident, an officer went to arrest Shears on April 4 at his residence, after Shears had failed to report to police as required by his release conditions. Shears answered the front door but claimed to be his brother — even going so far as to pretend to phone and talk with “himself,” telling the officer that “he” would be home in an hour.

In a Sept. 4 incident, Shears was stopped by police for an unrelated incident. He gave his brother’s name and was released — only for the officer to later realize that the name had been false.

Then on Aug. 24, when police executed a search warrant on a bicycle chop shop in the Flats, Shears was observed coming out of the garage associated with the address. He once again used his brother’s name but when searched by police they found his real ID cards in a backpack.

Shears also pled guilty to two counts of failing to report as required to police, not giving police his address, and failing to attend a court date.

Counterfeit money

It was 47 days time served for a man whose attempt to use a counterfeit $50 bill led to multiple charges.

Victor Rio, 40, entered guilty pleas to attempted fraud, uttering a counterfeit bill, possessing a controlled substance, and possession of stolen property Tuesday for an incident that stems back to Sept. 10.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Rio attempted to use a counterfeit $50 bill to pay for $20 of gas at a local gas station. The clerk realized the bill was counterfeit, and contacted police. When police arrived they found him in possession of GHB, two glass pipes with resident, 0.5 grams of meth, as well as golf clubs that didn’t belong to him, worth $400.

Defence counsel said Rio, who is not from Medicine Hat, had given a friend a ride to here. The counterfeit bill had been left in the vehicle, and he chose to be “willfully blind” and use it. Rio co-operated with the gas bar attendant and police, and has no criminal record.

Credit card fraud

A woman who used her mother’s stolen credit card in an attempt to spend thousands of dollars was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

Kerrie Lynn Bryce entered guilty pleas to one count of fraud under $5,000 and one count of using stolen credit cards for incidents that stem back to January of this year.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Bryce used her mother’s stolen credit card at several stores — successfully for $1,741.91 in goods, while $4,000 in transactions were rejected.

As part of the joint submission between Crown and defence counsel, Bryce was granted 83 days of credit for time served.

Bryce remains in custody over separate charges, with her next appearance on Oct. 25.