Judge informs man he must serve his entire sentence

An Ontario man whose arrest was a stroke of luck for the police last February will be spending nine more days in custody.

Sean Come Richer was arrested Feb. 23 after police had been called to investigate a report of an assault involving two other people.

During the course of dealing with the initial call, the responding officers had an interaction with Richer and were told he was driving a stolen vehicle.

When Richer was later located, it was confirmed he was driving a stolen Nissan Rogue.

In addition, he was found to be in possession of a number of items that did not belong to him, including two passports, social insurance numbers, a small amount of cash and gift cards for a restaurant in Ontario.

Ten grams of marijuana were also seized.

A check by police revealed Richer was a suspect in an Ottawa vehicle theft and that the restaurant for which he had gift cards had recently reported a break and entry during which gift cards and money were stolen.

When Richer appeared in provincial court in Corner Brook Wednesday, he entered guilty pleas to a charge of drug possession, one count of possessing stolen property and a count of resisting or obstructing a police officer.

Crown attorney Brenda Duffy told Judge Wayne Gorman that Richer has an extensive criminal past for property and driving offences. She asked he be sentenced to between six and nine months, with him getting time and a half credit for pre-sentence custody.

Considering the math worked out to be 261 days credit, Duffy suggested time served would be a sufficient sentence.

Federal Crown attorney Andrew May asked for one or two days on the drug possession charge, to be served concurrent to the other charges.

Gorman said nine months was a lenient sentence, especially considering possessing someone else’s passports is a serious offence that could lead to offences against the state. Still, the judge agreed with the upper range of the submission from the Crown.

Rather than time served, though, Gorman noted that nine months adds up to 270 days and Richer would have to serve the remaining nine days after his credit for time served was subtracted.