A man who stole and sold more than $530,000 worth of goods including motorcycles from Red Deer has been sent to a federal prison.
Samuel Hunter Smith, 29, of Edmonton was sentenced to five years in prison last week in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench after earlier pleading guilty to 33 counts of possession of stolen property and two counts of theft.
Smith’s sentence was reduced by 15 months for his guilty plea on 33 counts of possessing stolen property and two counts of theft.
Court heard Smith stole the motorcycles in Edmonton, Calgary and Red Deer and later sold them.
Smith was involved in the theft of at least 33 motorcycles, plus some boats and trailers and a truck.
Smith and others stole many of the bikes from underground garages in Edmonton.
He ground off the stolen bikes’ serial numbers and applied new numbers with a punch before selling them.
The judge who sentenced him said he had hurt people who had bought motorcycles from him and later lost them to police seizure. Smith was said to be part of a large and well-organized crime ring, and had been sentenced about a year earlier for similar crimes.
Smith was busted following a two-year RCMP operation called Project Krotch Rocket.
Smith initially faced 160-odd charges relating to more than 100 stolen motorcycles.