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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Car thief banished to Saskatchewan
Yorkton RCMP warned he's coming to town
Friday, Judge Janice leMaistre gave an approving nod to what was billed as a "very creative" last-ditch effort to try to rehabilitate the 16-year-old offender.
"This is your last chance," leMaistre said to the boy. "Get on that bus, get to Saskatchewan and start working on some of your problems," she said.
The plan allows him to live in Yorkton with family and serve out a period of probation that won't expire until early 2010.
Crown attorney Liz Pats described the teen as one of the "top three or four" underage car thieves in Winnipeg's auto-theft subculture. He has spent 11 of the last 16 months in custody.
He has an extensive record for stealing cars, being caught in possession of stolen cars, dangerous driving and breaches of court orders.
He was due to be placed unsupervised on a Greyhound bus to Yorkton at 7 p.m. Friday and arrive there this morning. Upon arrival he was required to phone RCMP and report in.
"Is this going to work? I don't know... we'll see if he gets to the end of the line," Pats told leMaistre.
"Yorkton also has cars."
The boy comes from a family whose members have more than 180 auto-theft convictions. Police consider them to be among the "worst of the worst" auto thieves in the city.
They have been successfully sued by Manitoba Public Insurance for $110,000. As well, they are being sued for $175,000 in civil lawsuits that remain before the courts.
"You couldn't find a courtroom big enough to fit all their victims in," a source quipped Friday.
Authorities hope that relocating the teen to Yorkton will remove him from the influence of his street gang.
"You will not have a future if you keep in contact with these people," leMaistre told the boy.
In addition to frequent check-ins with RCMP, the youth must also go to school or get a job, stay out of cars without their owner's consent, keep a curfew and not be found carrying any tools. He's due to start school Monday, court heard.
Sgt. Doug Safioles said Friday that it's not the first time a young offender on probation has been allowed to live out of province.
The process of re-locating his probation order out of province is similar to the "courtesy supervision" protocols police follow when a young offender moves to another area of the province.
Safioles said he prepped an RCMP sergeant in Yorkton by sending him the teen's record, a current probation report and contact information for a Crown attorney in Winnipeg. The Crown's office there has also been notified.
Investigators in Yorkton will be watching closely for any spikes in their auto theft rates, he added.
"They're up to par on that," Safioles said.
He added the move from Winnipeg is a relief to Winnipeggers and the officers in his unit.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition December 13, 2008 A5
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