Wasted opportunity

Michael William Hollinger gets jail time for string of offences after judge gives him a second chance

Michael William Hollinger was given a chance to show he was staying clean.

Instead he missed a court date, broke into his father’s house and cut off an electronic monitoring bracelet that was used to keep track of him.

Those and other offences landed Hollinger a 150-day jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to five charges including theft, break and enter, and failing to attend court.

Hollinger was already in custody when he recently appeared before Judge John Douglas in provincial court in Charlottetown.

It was Douglas who previously gave him the chance to show he wasn’t using drugs.

Hollinger then missed his next court appearance.

The court heard Hollinger went to his father’s home, broke in through a window and took $200 along with a laptop.

While he was there Hollinger cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet.

After breaking into his father’s house, Hollinger went to the home of a woman he knows and was there when she came home.

Hollinger asked if he could stay, but the woman said no.

She later noticed items were missing from her home, but Hollinger only acknowledged stealing a ball cap.

In an unrelated incident, Hollinger also stole a $156 pair of sunglasses from a store in Charlottetown.

The police were able to locate him after that incident because of the monitoring bracelet he would later cut at his father’s house.

Defence lawyer Thane MacEachern told the court Hollinger relapsed after his mother died from a fentanyl overdose.

After Douglas gave him credit for time served, Hollinger was left with 75 days on his sentence.

Hollinger must pay $1,037 in restitution to his father and $18.75 for the electronic monitoring bracelet he cut.

Douglas also ordered him to pay $600 in victim surcharges.