Man caught scavenging at dump pleads guilty to break and enter

Scavenging at the Osoyoos landfill last summer has cost a man some of his free time.

Noel Richard Hansen, 41, pleaded guilty Monday in provincial court in Penticton to one count of breakand-enter with intent to commit an offence and was ordered to perform 15 hours of community service as a condition of a year-long probation order.

Court heard an RCMP officer spotted him and another man inside the landfill around 9 p.m. on June 24, 2016, along with a pile of car batteries and scrap metal near a hole in the fence that surrounds the site.

Defence counsel James Pennington said his client was homeless at the time and had agreed to go Dumpster diving with a friend, before they ended up at the landfill looking for items of value they could sell to support themselves.

“He’s adamant he was not involved in picking up car batteries or pieces of metal or anything like that,” added Pennington, whose client claimed he was only collecting bottles and cans.

The lawyer also noted that, according to Hansen, the hole in the fence was already there.

“Not that it provides an excuse, but I didn’t want the court left with the impression these two cut their way into the landfill,” said Pennington.

Terms of his probation require Hansen to obey a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and stay away from the landfill.

His co-accused, Scott Andrew Metherel, is set to stand trial in June.