Man accused of running bike chop shop heading to trial

By Peggy Revell on September 20, 2017.

prevell@medicinehatnews.com @MHNprevell

A Medicine Hat man arrested over allegations of running a bicycle chop shop will be going to trial.

Defence counsel for the 34-year-old man entered not-guilty pleas Tuesday, over charges of trafficking stolen property, and possession for the purpose of trafficking stolen property.

Guilty pleas were entered though, over charges that Darcy Fischer failed to report to police as required, and breached his release conditions by being in possession of a bike.

The man was fined $1,000 for this, although the Crown requested a sentence of jail time.

Giving context for the two guilty pleas, defence counsel said the man had slept all day so had missed signing in — but immediately contacted police when he realized what had occurred. The man was riding the bike to go get groceries, when police spotted him.

Counsel also noted the charges where the ban on bicycles comes from is going to trial, as the bikes seized by police were in his garage — but there were other people living in the residence at the time, and he had no knowledge of what was occurring.

Police allege Fischer was operating a chop shop. Acting on a tip from the public, police executed on Aug. 24 a search warrant in the 600 block of Pottery Street and seized approximately $3,000 in bikes, frames, tires, rims and parts that had been stripped down, repainted and re-assembled for sale.

9
-8

Comments are closed.