Crown won’t seek extra prison terms for two of three convicted Sangheras

Members of the purported Sanghera crime group convicted of gun charges last week will have to spend at least a few more days in jail.

B. C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes said Friday she would not hear applications to release Boby Sanghera and his cousin Savdip Sanghera on probation pending her sentencing decision on Wednesday.

Crown prosecutor Mark Sheardown said earlier in the day that he is not seeking additional jail time for either Boby or Savdip beyond the three years and a month each of them served in pre- trial custody.

Sheardown said they had already served the equivalent of a six- year, two- month sentence with the doubletime credit factored in.

But he asked Holmes to impose an additional 10- month sentence on Savdip’s brother Navdip Sanghera, since he was under an earlier firearms prohibition when he caught with three loaded guns in the fall of 2008.

Sheardown also argued for 18 months’ probation for each of the accused, as well as a lifetime gun ban.

He said there were aggravating factors in the case and that “the possession of these firearms falls completely outside of civilized lawful behaviour.”

Boby and Navdip were convicted of illegally possessing three loaded, semi- automatic handguns when their Chrysler was pulled over by police on Nov. 8, 2008.

“These guns were possessed to go hunting for people or things,” Sheardown said.

The guns were hidden in a secret compartment and two of them had serial numbers that had been obliterated. Savdip was convicted of selling a combat semi- automatic CZ 85 on Jan. 31, 2009, which Sheardown said Friday had been used in two drive- by shootings in Vancouver.

All three accused joked and whispered with each other throughout the day.

Lawyers for Boby and Savdip said their clients should get only the minimum mandatory three- year sentence for their gun convictions.

Brian Coleman said it wasn’t fair to suggest his client Boby, now 34, was out to shoot someone that night, despite police theories.

“He was not charged with conspiracy to commit murder,” Coleman said. “What he was charged with was possession of a weapon.”

The young father has been denied three years with his five- year- old and almost four- year- old children, which is “a significant penalty,” Coleman said.

He disputed police claims that Boby is a member of the Sanghera crime group and linked to a gang war that plagued south Vancouver in 2008.

“He wasn’t involved in any drive- by shootings. He was not in any gang or organization. He is a Sanghera — a member of a family,” Coleman said.

Lawyer Colleen Elden said Savdip had served double the mandatory minimum despite his crime being at the “low end” of the spectrum. And she argued Savdip was addicted to crack cocaine when he sold the firearm, but is now clean.

Navdip’s lawyer David Fai argued that his client had also served enough time in jail, despite the Crown wanting another 10 months.

He said Navdip should get a fourto five- year term on the gun possession charges, then an additional 10- 12 months for breaching the earlier ban. With two- for- one credit, he should still be released immediately, Fai argued.

No matter when the trio gets out, Vancouver police will be there to stem future gang violence, Const. Jana Mcguinness said Friday.

“With public safety our priority, our efforts to suppress gang violence in Vancouver will continue as they have for several years now,” she said. “We continue to take a very proactive approach to combating gang violence year- round, as do our policing partners.”