House arrest after van used as battering ram in legion break-in
A man who drove a stolen van through the front doors of the Chippawa legion hall and made off with an ATM as part of weeklong crime spree across Niagara has been placed under house arrest.
Kevin Boutilier appeared in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines on Wednesday for sentencing on a slew of offences including several smash-andgrab break-ins across the Niagara region.
He received an 18-month conditional sentence, which takes into account the amount of time he had spent in pretrial custody, the equivalent of 317 days.
The first two-thirds of his sentence will be served under house arrest.
On April 17, court heard, the 41-year-old Niagara Falls man and another male used a stolen van to smash the front doors of the Royal Canadian Legion hall in Chippawa.
The duo gained access to the foyer and removed an ATM machine. Damage was extensive.
Niagara police executed a search warrant at Boutilier’s residence, a room at a Lundy’s Lane hotel, and seized various items including a crow bar, drywall blades, a balaclava and lottery tickets.
Police had been investigating about a dozen commercial break and enters at the time which had occurred throughout the region including in Niagara Falls, Welland and Fort Erie.
The investigation linked the offender to a number of the unsolved crimes.
Court was told Boutilier, often accompanied by an accomplice, would pull up at a gas station in a stolen van and smash the front door and then fill garbage bins with cigarettes, lottery tickets and miscellaneous items.
One heist at a Welland gas station netted the thieves more than $7,700 in cigarettes and 150 lottery tickets.
Boutilier was later captured on video surveillance cashing in the winning lottery tickets at convenience stores in Niagara Falls and St. Catharines.
Fifty-two-year-old Arlin Sapielak and John Lenik, 57, both of St. Catharines, pleaded guilty at an earlier date to offences related to the break and enters.
On Wednesday, Sapielak received a 15-month conditional sentence, which takes into account the time he had spent in pretrial custody, the equivalent of 59 days.
Lenik, who had served the equivalent of 117 days in pretrial custody, received a 12-month conditional sentence.
All three men were also placed on probation and are banned from having any contact with one another.