Stolen licence plate, suspicion of criminal acts in S.C. land man in jail for six months

A guilty plea was entered Thursday by a Manitoban arrested in Cypress County in a vehicle with a stolen licence plate, and connected to criminal activity that had occurred in Swift Current.

Jordan Harkness-Brown was sentenced to six months in jail as part of a joint submission negotiated by defence counsel with both Saskatchewan and Alberta Crowns.

According to the agreed statement of facts, the 24-year-old from Carberry, Man., was arrested on March 14 in Cypress County after RCMP queried the licence plate of the vehicle he was in, parked off the highway. The query showed the plate was stolen, and the vehicle was associated with recent criminal events that had occurred in Saskatchewan.

Harkness-Brown pled guilty to being in possession of the stolen licence plate, failure to comply with his release conditions by being in possession of a weapon — in this case a baseball bat, as well as being in possession of small quantities of methamphetamine.

Police also found in his possession $7,381 in cash.

The Saskatchewan Crown agreed to drop the charges Harkness-Brown faced in the neighbouring province, in return for a higher sentence on the Albertan charges, and only being granted 23 days of pretrial custody credit towards his sentence.

“I did something I shouldn’t have done,” Harkness-Brown told the judge, saying he was under the influence of drugs at the time and wouldn’t have otherwise done it.

Defence counsel said that the guilty pleas are part of him taking responsibility for his actions.

The co-accused, Robyn Boersma, was sentenced in March to 30 days and $600 in fines after pleading guilty to being in possession of a stolen licence plate, possessing just over a gram of meth, and breaching conditions that require her to stay within Manitoba.