Bike thief pleads guilty to charges Sean Cavanagh, 30, pleaded guilty to 2 counts of theft under $5,000, 1 count of willfully obstructing a police officer and 1 count of breach of probation

The Okanagan Saturday

A Kelowna man who pleaded guilty to stealing a bicycle and several items from Save on Foods was sentenced to one more day in jail.

On May 26, police received a report that three males were stealing bicycles in the 3100 block of Richter Street.

The complainant indicated he was watching the men cut the locks and take a couple of bikes from a bike rack, said Crown counsel Duncan Campbell in court on Thursday.

An officer attended the scene and saw two men riding bicycles across the street matching descriptions provided by the witness.

As soon as the officer exited his vehicle, the two men split up, riding in different directions.

The officer followed one man, who attempted to ride the bicycle through a ditch near Okanagan College but crashed.

He continued on foot and the officer began a foot chase, yelling out to the man that he was under arrest.

The man continued running, jumped over a fence, landed on sharp gravel, then proceeded to trip on a large sheet of plywood, falling face first onto the ground.

The officer continued chasing the man, as he attempted to jump over a second fence.

“Just as he is trying to go over the fence, the officer catches up to him and pulls him to the ground and handcuffs him,” said Campbell.

The man was identified as 30-year-old Sean Cavanagh.

On Sept. 13, a loss prevention officer at Save on Foods on Cooper Road called police to report he had apprehended a shoplifter.

The individual had been observed taking a package of razors and earbuds and stuffing both down his pants.

Again, the man was identified as Cavanagh.

Cavanagh pleaded guilty to two counts of theft under $5,000, one count of willfully obstructing a police officer and one count of breach of probation.

On Thursday, Judge Lisa Wyatt sentenced him to 60 days of time served for the bike theft, 21 days in jail for the Save on Foods theft and 30 days for the breach of probation.

With credit for time served, Cavanagh had one day left to serve in jail.

“Drug addiction seems to be the driving force behind your criminal history,” Wyatt said to Cavanagh.

“I think you have the skills and the smarts to be able to turn your life around, but you’ve got to get clean and you’ve got to commit yourself to treatment.”

Cavanagh was previously sentenced for a 2013 robbery at a Bank of Montreal in Kelowna.