CRIME SPREE

Items Michael Vaughan, 40, admitted stealing over 4-day span include 2 electric scooters, 1 motorbike and 1 bicycle

Aone-man crime wave that washed through Penticton earlier this year has crashed ashore with a 15-month jail sentence. Michael Vaughan, 40, pleaded guilty to four counts of theft under $5,000, plus single counts of possession of stolen property under $5,000 and mischief under $5,000. He was sentenced Wednesday in provincial court in Penticton.

Among the offences he admitted stealing over a four-day span in June were two electric scooters, one motorbike and one bicycle.

Crown counsel Vern Frolick sought a sentence of 16 months, while defence counsel Bob Maxwell suggested time served since Vaughan’s arrest June 21.

“What has been described here is like a druginduced fog that (Vaughan) was operating in over about a one-week period. It was some type of weird fixation,” said Maxwell.

His client arrived in Penticton from Calgary in January 2016 after five years’ sobriety and soon after fell back into addictions to crack cocaine and methamphetamine.

Frolick told the court Vaughan was first arrested here Feb. 23, when a member of the public called police to report hearing a “hammering” noise at the Murray GM dealership on Westminster Avenue.

Police found Vaughan nearby with a hammer and a lockbox that he’d taken from a vehicle. The box, which he obtained by smashing a window, contained a key for the vehicle, but was unopened.

He was busted next on June 18 after attempting to steal a high-end mountain bike from the back of a truck on Main Street. The bike’s owner was able to hold Vaughan for police, who linked him to the theft of a scooter just an hour earlier on Ellis Street.

On June 20, Vaughan was arrested again at Walmart while pushing a Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle he’d stolen earlier that day from a home on Argyle Street.

He was released on bail June 21, and less than two hours later was back in custody after being caught pushing away a stolen scooter from the Penticton Community Centre.

Once finished his jail term, Vaughan will be on probation for 18 months. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $1,521 to Murray GM for the cost of the broken vehicle window and $2,000 to the owner of the scooter that was taken June 18 and never recovered.

Vaughan is due back in court in Penticton later this month for two separate trials: one for assault with a weapon and uttering threats on May 22; the other for uttering threats and breaching a court order on that same day.