P.E.I. man jailed for theft from retailer

A Prince Edward Island man will spend the next 19 days in Nova Scotia after being sentenced to theft from a local retailer.

Gordon John Doughty, 61, of Stratford, P.E.I., was arrested without incident and faces charges of theft under $5,000 from an incident on May 4 in Pictou. A second charge of possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000 was withdrawn by the Crown after it said it had no reasonable prospect of conviction on that charge.

Doughty entered a guilty plea Wednesday in Pictou provincial court and sentencing immediately followed with the Crown laying out the facts of the case.

Crown Attorney Jody McNeill called Doughty “travelling thief” who was arrested May 4 around 9:15 p.m. after an off-duty police officer noticed a man grab a basket of food from inside of the Sobeys Pictou store and taking it to his silver Jaguar parked in the lot.

The officer saw Doughty leave the parking lot in a hurry but noticed him return again a short time later and take another basket of food from the store without paying. He was eventually located by RCMP at a Pictou residents and charged with theft of items totaling $129.

However, when police checked his information, they noticed that Doughty had 12 outstanding warrants from various provinces across Canada.

Defence lawyer Doug Lloy said his client is currently dealing with one warrant from the Colchester area when he makes a court appearance in that area in June 13 and there are three outstanding warrants from British Columbia. He said Doughty has told him that the remaining warrants have been resolved.

McNeill said Doughty’s convictions date back to 1974 with a gap in between some of the years. Some of the convictions are for robbery, theft, assault, court breaches and driving while disqualified.

The Crown asked the court to consider a sentence of 60 to 90 days followed by a period of probation. McNeill said Doughty has been in custody since his arrest so his time served would equal 41 days.

Lloy said his didn’t feel probation was required but if the court did impose it, he asked that the clause keeping him in Nova Scotia was removed because he had plans to province.

Doughty told the court he was sorry for his actions and apologized to the RCMP and Sobeys for the incident as well to his for the embarrassment it has caused them.

Judge Del Atwood said he considered this theft to be on the low end of the scale, but still required a short and sharp jail sentence. He said he would not take the warrants into consideration in the sentencing because these involve pending charges and everyone is given the presumption of innocence.

However, he told Doughty that the warrants will continue to be “millstone around your neck” until he gets things properly cleared up.

Atwood sentenced Doughty to 60 days in jail and gave him credit for his days on remand since his arrest which means he will be behind bars for another 19 days. He was not sentenced to probation but was ordered to pay a victim surcharge fine of $100 within six months.