Three sentenced for possession of $80,000 in stolen electronics

A car crash near Wawa, Ont., turned up a link to a robbery in Regina when police discovered suitcases filled with $80,000 worth of phones and electronics.

Three men appeared at Regina provincial court on Tuesday for what was slated to be their preliminary hearing on charges related to a robbery on Feb. 25, 2016. Instead, the Crown determined its evidence against the three would not support the robbery charges, and instead accepted guilty pleas from each to a single count of possession of stolen property over $5,000.

The three Edmonton men — 24-year-old Salem Koudia, 24-year-old Kudzai Tapfumanei Mugadya and 23-year-old Jiel Simon Uguak — were handed 18-month conditional sentences, which allow the trio to serve jail terms in the community.

According to information released by the Regina Police Service last year, officers were called at about 11 a.m. on the February date to the Rogers store on the 4600 block of Gordon Road, having received a report of a robbery.

The investigation revealed four masked men went into the store and “aggressively demanded merchandise,” police said at the time.

Police said during the course of the incident, a 32-year-old employee was taken to the back of the store and secured there while the men gathered what was described as “a substantial amount of electronic merchandise.” While the employee was reportedly assaulted, he was not seriously injured.

Police said the men fled, possibly in a vehicle for which police had no description.

While the Crown tossed out charges connecting the three men to the robbery itself, they were among five arrested the next day after being found in possession of the stolen items, court heard.

An officer with the Ontario Provincial Police came upon the scene of a crash shortly before 11 a.m. on Feb. 26, 2016. A Volkswagen Passat had crashed into the ditch with poor road conditions likely to blame, and police found the five men there.

The officer’s attention was drawn to a number of scattered cellphones, and the resulting investigation turned up $80,000 worth of phones and other electronics — much of which was contained in suitcases — bearing serial numbers tracking back to the Regina robbery.

Court heard all but one of the stolen items were returned to the store, although 10 were found to have been damaged to the point they couldn’t be sold as new.

As the sentence was the result of a joint recommendation by Crown and defence counsel, defence lawyers for the men provided few details about their clients, other than to note the men were born outside Canada but are now citizens. Court heard the three are or have been employed, with one also working as an artist and another as an “aspiring rapper.”

The lawyer for Koudia said his client is “quite contrite” about his actions.

The sentence includes terms barring the three from attending any Rogers Communications store in Canada and preventing them from possessing weapons or contacting the complainant in the robbery, among other conditions.

Two other men continue to face charges in relation to the robbery, but are the subjects of bench warrants.