Dustin Hubbard said an odd thing to provincial police when officers stopped him in Lambton County while he was pulling a trailer loaded with a pair of suspected stolen snowmobiles.
“(He) stated that he thinks the snowmobiles are stolen and that he was trying to return them,” assistant Crown attorney Aniko Coughlan said to a Sarnia courtroom.
Justice Mark Poland said it was an unusual thing to say to police.
“Didn’t mention anything about the truck, apparently,” the judge said.
Police had been warned in mid-February to be on the lookout for a trailer and two snowmobiles stolen from Dashwood, Ont., between Grand Bend and Exeter. That’s why they pulled Hubbard over on Feb. 16 in Watford. The police investigation also uncovered the 2005 Ford F-250 he was driving had been stolen from the Windsor-area town of Tecumseh. It had different license plates on the front and back that had also being stolen.
Hubbard, 31, was facing a slew of charges, but most of them were dropped after he pleaded guilty in a Sarnia courtroom last week to two counts of possession of stolen property, one worth more than $5,000 and one worth less. He was sentenced to just shy of two months in jail.
This time, he thing not to say anything.
Coughlan and defense lawyer Danielle D’Alonzo, who pointed out the case had significant potential charter issues, both suggested the 56-day jail sentence. Poland said it was clearly at the low end of the range for these crimes, but added he’d impose it based, in part, on D’Alonzo’s point about the case.
He also added an 18-month probation order banning Hubbard, an Orillia-area resident with no known ties to the region, from coming to Lambton County unless it’s for work.
Hubbard, who had a prior record, including for similar offences, has struggled for about a decade with a substance-abuse issue, D’Alonzo said. The sheet metal worker had enough time to fully serve the sentence, she said, but noted he wouldn’t be released from jail due to other outstanding charges.