A Winnipeg teen who was caught with a stolen car in Brandon has appeared in court to face the judge and receive his punishment.
But it looks like he’ll have another tough "judge" to answer to when he gets home — his mom.
In Brandon court recently, the teen pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property.
Crown attorney Jim Ross said the 17-year-old was caught recently driving a stolen Chevrolet Equinox over the First Street bridge.
OnStar had informed police that the vehicle had been stolen from its Winnipeg owner. Usually, offenders rip the OnStar system out of a stolen vehicle, Ross noted.
"So he’s new at this," Ross said of the youth.
Ross said the offender had driven to Brandon to meet with some people who weren’t identified in court.
Defence lawyer Philip Sieklicki supplied his young client’s explanation which differed vastly from Ross’.
The teen maintains that he had woken up in the vehicle to find himself in Brandon.
Ross said the teen’s mom, a child and family services support worker, was showing "tough love" towards her son.
Ross said the mom told her son that she would be working so he can buy his own bus ticket home — she wasn’t going to take a day off work to come to Brandon to fetch him.
At the time of arrest, the boy had only $5 in his pocket.
By the time he’d entered his guilty plea, he’d spent two days in custody.
Judge Krystyna Tarwid imposed a one-year conditional discharge with an order to either do 20 hours of community service work, make a $200 donation to charity or do a combination of both.
The offender is also banned from being in Brandon unless he’s with his mom.
But Tarwid wasn’t going to leave it up to the teen to find his own way back to Winnipeg, as his mom suggested.
"I don’t think it’s such a good plan … I don’t want you hitchhiking on the highway or doing other things that might not be so positive," Tarwid said.
Instead, Child and Family Services will work with the youth to find him a way to get home.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition October 22, 2012
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