Judge orders man to pay restitution

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This article was published 09/08/2023 (1128 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Brandon man who stole from numerous local businesses last year was sentenced to time served and ordered to pay more than $5,000 in restitution.

Robert Henry, 40, pleaded guilty to multiple charges of theft from businesses in court on Tuesday. The Crown and defence were in agreement on the time served sentence for the man, who has been behind bars for seven and a half months.

Crown attorney Melania Cannon read the evidence for the charges in court.

In June of last year, Brandon police received surveillance video that showed three people cutting catalytic converters from two vehicles parked in the laneway adjacent to the west side of the Healthy Living Centre at Brandon University. Henry was identified in the video as the person standing guard while other were trying to steal the catalytic converters.

Later in September, a theft from Walmart was reported to police. The caller gave police a description of the man, who fled the store driving a grey Nissan Sentra.

Police found the car driving southbound on 18th Street. Officers stopped the vehicle, but Henry left the car through the back seat in the middle of traffic and fled toward the university. More than $400 of merchandise had been stolen, though much of it was recovered.

Then, just a few days later, a Brandon woman was meeting a man from Facebook Marketplace to purchase an item from him. The man showed her the item and after she agreed to buy it, she left the room to go get the money.

After the man left, the woman realized that her phone was gone. The phone, a new model of an iPhone, was valued at $1,300. Police later found that Henry had used a different name for his Facebook Marketplace account and the woman was able to identify him from a photo lineup.

The next month in October, over the span of three days, Henry stole about eight jackets from Mark’s. Henry would put on jackets and leave the store without paying. He returned to the apparel store multiple times to take more jackets, which ranged in value from $150 to $300. Police were able to stop his vehicle after his last jacket theft and found him in the car wearing a Helly Hansen jacket with store tags still on it.

Henry also stole tool sets from Home Depot, a welder from Princess Auto and a radio from Staples.

Cannon said that the sentence suggested by her and defence considers the totality of the offences, and accommodated for the seriousness of the thefts, especially the jackets from Mark’s.

“It’s flagrant and brazen, [a] string of thefts from the same store,” Cannon said.

The prosecutor told the court that she would have preferred to ask that Henry be placed on conditions to not attend the any of the businesses he stole from. However, she said that court-ordered conditions have not stopped Henry in the past, noting that he was already on conditions to not attend many of the stores from which he stole.

Henry’s defence lawyer, Matthew Munce, told the court that his client’s struggles began after a divorce that led to an addiction issue. First his addiction was cocaine and then crystal methamphetamine.

Munce said that Henry wants to get back to spending time with his two kids and providing for them. He plans to stay in Winnipeg, where he will be away from peers in Brandon who are negative influences for him.

Henry, who appeared in court by video from Winnipeg Remand Centre, told the court that he was ashamed of himself and said that he wanted to get his life back on track once he was released.

Associate chief Judge Donovan Dvorak acknowledged the role of addiction in Henry’s offences and encouraged him to put his life on a sober path after his release.

“These are the exact kinds of charges that one would expect to see — someone who is in the throes of addiction, trying to do whatever the person can do to feed the addiction,” Dvorak said while endorsing the joint recommendation for time served and the restitution order.

Upon Henry’s release, he will be living in Winnipeg, where he is also facing additional theft charges.

» gmortfield@brandonsun.com

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