Housebreaking nets jail time
By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on February 12, 2022.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com
A 56-year-old man who broke into a former employer’s home has been sentenced to six months in jail.
Kevin Gordon Marsh was sentenced Friday in Lethbridge provincial court, where he pleaded guilty to charges of housebreaking, fraud under $5,000 and uttering a forged document.
On June 5, 2019 Marsh broke into the house on Oxford Road West and stole some cheques, then went to LA Cheque Cashers in the city and cashed a cheque to himself for $1,875. Two days later he tried to cash another cheque for $2,375 at the Bank of Montreal, but a teller who recognized the business cheques became suspicious and compared the signature with a signature already on file. When she noticed the signatures didn’t match, she refused to give Marsh the money.
Marsh left the cheque and said he would return later, and the bank contacted the owner and determined the cheque had been stolen.
Marsh also pleaded guilty to a single count of shopbreaking, and was sentenced to three months in jail, to run concurrently with his other sentence.
Marsh was caught on video surveillance breaking into his former employer’s business at about 7:30 p.m. on April 6, 2019. Marsh used a garage door opener he had taken from inside a company truck when he worked for the company. After he opened the door to the shop, he took a 2003 Ford F150 and drove away, but returned an hour later and left the vehicle outside in the parking lot.
Lethbridge lawyer Claudia Connolly told court Marsh, who suffers from “acuity” issues, had already spent the equivalent of 27 days in remand custody. He was given credit for the remand time, which leaves him with about fives months to serve. Marsh was also ordered to submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank.
Additional charges of attempted fraud under $5,000, uttering a forged document and possession of stolen property under $5,000, were withdrawn.
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