A Kamloops roofer arrested in B.C. will serve 60 days for theft and drug charges laid in Central Alberta early in 2009.
Daniel James Colligan, 26, was arrested in Kamloops and then transferred to Red Deer to face charges of possessing narcotics and stolen property.
Colligan pleaded guilty in Red Deer provincial court on Tuesday to possession of stolen property valued at under $5,000 and to possession of several vials of crack cocaine totalling 6.7 grams. He pleaded guilty also to failing to appear in court.
The possession of stolen property charges relates to a laptop computer that had been removed from a bait vehicle that police had set out to tempt thieves.
The computer was found during a search of Colligan’s hotel room on Feb. 5, 2009, said Crown prosecutor Robin Joudrey.
The drugs were found by police investigating a complaint of assault with a weapon on Feb. 1, 2009, said Crown prosecutor David Inglis, who deals with federal offences, including drug charges.
Speaking from the prisoner’s box, Colligan said he understood and admitted to all charges, including charges of failing to appear in court.
Colligan said he was an addict at the time the offences were committed, but that he is not longer an addict and has straightened out his life.
His lawyer, John McNaughton, pointed to Colligan’s co-operation in admitting to the charges, describing him as a father of two children and steadily employed as a roofer.
Prosecutors Inglis and Joudrey, in a joint submission with McNaughton, asked that Colligan be sentenced to 15 days for the charges of failing to appear, as well as 30 days for possession of narcotics and 30 days for possession of stolen property.
In reviewing a criminal record spread over two pages and including a wide variety of offences committed in Ontario, Alberta and B.C., Judge David Plosz termed Colligan a “generalist” with a “brutal” record.
Plosz gave Colligan 15 days credit for the seven days he had served in custody, and then ordered 30 days on each of the other two charges, to be served consecutively.
