Truck thief who eluded police gets jail time

A Niagara man previously banned from attending U-Haul locations has been convicted of driving a stolen U-Haul truck head-on into a Mercedes following a police chase.

“You had no regard for the safety of others,” Judge Joseph De Filippis told Alexander Gaudreau.

“You accelerated through the streets in a stolen vehicle, and it’s fortunate that someone wasn’t hurt more than (what) happened, or was indeed killed.”

The 25-year-old was sentenced to 493 days in jail Friday after he pleaded guilty in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines to several charges, including dangerous driving and possession over $5,000.

He was also banned from driving for five years.

“You have to be taught you’re going to punished when you do bad things,” the judge told Gaudreau.

Niagara Regional Police were called to a Drummond Road gas station in Niagara Falls April 20 after a report that someone had pumped gas into a U-Haul truck and taken off without paying.

An investigation revealed the truck had been stolen from a St. Catharines U-Haul location.

Officers began to pursue the vehicle, which took off at a high rate of speed, but ended the chase after the truck entered Highway 420.

Police later learned the truck had been speeding on the wrong side of the road when it collided head-on with a Mercedes being driven by an elderly man.

The driver of the Mercedes, which was destroyed in the crash, complained of wrist pain but refused to go to hospital out of concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

“He said he’d never been so scared in his life,” assistant Crown attorney Grace Pang told the judge.

Gaudreau, a resident of Welland, pleaded guilty in January to several charges including possession of a motor vehicle obtained by crime and attempted break and enter.

He received a six-month jail sentence, which was reduced to 87 days, and placed on probation for two years and banned from all U-Haul locations.