Pubdate: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Author: Neal Hall, Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) APPEAL COURT REDUCES DRUG TRAFFICKER'S PRISON TERM The B.C. Court of Appeal has reduced a jail sentence imposed last October on a cocaine trafficker who breached several conditions of his conditional sentence, a form of house arrest. Nicholas James Hawkins pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine in 2004 at Port McNeill. Earlier this year, he received a one-year conditional sentence with nine conditions. While serving his sentence in the community in July, Hawkins was arrested in Courtenay by police responding to a call about an impaired driver after a truck drove on lawns and through flower beds at night. Police found Hawkins across the street from the truck talking on a cellphone. An officer testified he gave a false name and appeared intoxicated. Hawkins, who lives in Victoria and runs a logging business on northern Vancouver Island, testified he had a skidder to be repaired, so he was heading north with his 18-year-old brother. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bill Ehrcke, sitting in Campbell River, found Hawkins breached several conditions: his nightly curfew, a cellphone ban, a requirement to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, and another to report to his conditional-sentence supervisor. Hawkins pleaded with the court not to send him to jail to serve the remaining 71/2 months of his one-year conditional sentence. Ehrcke ignored his protests, finding Hawkins was "cavalier" about his conditions. "He should have been careful not to breach any of those conditions," Ehrcke said before terminating the conditional sentence. "It must be brought home to Mr. Hawkins and to other persons serving conditional sentences that obeying their conditions is an important and serious matter," the judge added. Hawkins appealed having to serve the remainder of his conditional sentence. The appeal court found 71/2 months in custody was disproportionate for the crime, given the Crown's original position that three months in custody was appropriate for the trafficking offence. "The sentencing judge was nevertheless correct in finding that the breaches were serious, and that it was important to treat them seriously," Appeal Court Justice Kathryn Neilson said in written reasons released this week. In a unanimous ruling, the appeal court replaced the termination order of the conditional sentence with an order that it be suspended for four months, with Hawkins then returning to the community to serve the remainder of his sentence under the same conditions. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin