Breaching house arrests nets jail time
A former Windsor man who was sentenced to a term of imprisonment in the community will serve the remainder of his conditional sentence in jail after breaching his house arrest condition.
Jason Douglas Mark Flynn, 37, changed his pleas to guilty last September to charges of assault causing bodily harm and failing to comply with an order made by a judge not to possesses, use or consume alcohol or non-prescribed drugs as defined by the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Flynn also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with his recognizance.
Flynn was handed a 240-day conditional sentence order on Feb. 21. This included house arrest for the first 90 days, followed by a daily curfew for the remaining time.
Flynn was brought to Windsor provincial court in custody on May 16 on an allegation that he had breached the house arrest condition. Flynn admitted the breach. Judge Alan Tufts terminated Flynn’s conditional sentence and ordered him to spend the remaining time – 149 days – in custody.
On May 10, Flynn’s probation officer received a phone call from an RCMP constable advising that while conducting a compliance check at Flynn’s residence in Vaughan, she could not locate the offender.
The probation officer checked the phone records at Correctional Services to see if Flynn had called in to say he had an outside appointment, which he had not. The probation officer asked the constable to provide evidence to support the house arrest breach.
Police made the probation officer aware that Flynn had violated his house arrest on May 2 by not being in his residence when police conducted a compliance check. The police chose to issue Flynn a warning on that occasion as he was apparently relocating and had a court appearance the following morning to change the address on his conditional sentence order.
A written report to the court from Correctional Services states that there have been ongoing issues with Flynn’s house arrest compliance, as evidenced by a prior breach on April 6. The writer of the report stated that Flynn didn’t seem to take his conditional sentence seriously and “continues to defy the conditions. He is seen as a risk to the general public safety.”