Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
WINNIPEG —One of Winnipeg’s most notorious car thieves is headed back to jail after Manitoba’s highest court ruled he remains an ongoing risk to the public.
Gene Soldat, 23, learned this week his two-year conditional sentence that allowed him to remain free had been overturned by the Court of Appeal. He must serve an 18-month stint behind bars instead.
“To say that the accused has an extensive criminal record is an understatement,” Justice Marc Monnin wrote in the decision.
The appeal court agreed with the Crown’s submission that keeping Soldat out of custody sends the wrong message, especially with his extensive criminal history.
Soldat has almost 100 prior criminal convictions, including 77 for auto-theft related offences.
Soldat received his strongest punishment to date in 2008, when his case was raised to adult from youth court. Soldat was given three years in prison, in addition to the equivalent of two years spent in custody, for several charges related to stolen vehicles and high-speed chases.
Soldat’s criminal ways made headlines in 2007 when Manitoba Public Insurance obtained a $110,000 judgment against him following one of the city’s worst property-crime sprees in recent history that involved several other young co-accused.
In the span of a few weeks beginning in late 2004, the boys were responsible for stealing five cars — three of which were written off — and damaging 38 others, including a police car that was destroyed in a high-speed crash.
» Winnipeg Free Press
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 5, 2012
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WINNIPEG —One of Winnipeg’s most notorious car thieves is headed back to jail after Manitoba’s highest court ruled he remains an ongoing risk to the public.
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WINNIPEG —One of Winnipeg’s most notorious car thieves is headed back to jail after Manitoba’s highest court ruled he remains an ongoing risk to the public.
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