P.E.I. man sentenced for damaging potato fields at Skye View Farms
CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A P.E.I. man has been sentenced for driving onto Skye View Farms’ potato fields in his pickup truck and damaging the property.
Matthew Kristian Scott, 34, pleaded responsible and was sentenced on March 18 in provincial courtroom in Charlottetown for property injury and an unrelated impaired driving offence that occurred months later.
Crown legal professional Lisa Goulden instructed the courtroom that on July 30, Logan Docherty of Skye View Farms in Elmwood phoned the RCMP after noticing that a few of his potato fields had been broken the earlier night time by a car.
Docherty suspected Scott, who can also be his cousin, of committing the offence. Docherty had been instructed by somebody that Scott had been driving in close by fields that night.
When contacted by the RCMP, Scott gave a press release admitting to inflicting the injury. He defined that he was doing donuts in a close-by hay area in his pickup truck after which drove onto Docherty’s fields.
Goulden mentioned the price of replanting the crops, labour and spraying was $5,000.
Scott was arrested and launched from police custody whereas his matter was earlier than the courtroom.
Then on Oct. 20, Scott was driving in Cornwall. He was pulled over for dashing after which “stumbled out of the truck along with his fingers up,” mentioned Goulden.
Scott was arrested and offered two breathalyzer samples of 140 milligrams (mg) of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The authorized restrict is 80 mg.
Scott’s prison report features a earlier impaired driving conviction in 2016.
Defence lawyer Derek Bondt clarified why his consumer drove by means of the hay and potato fields. Bondt defined that Scott eliminated a broken muffler from the car beforehand after which drove by means of the fields to keep away from driving on the roads.
For the impaired driving conviction, Bondt acknowledged that his consumer was doubtless going to obtain a jail time period and requested seven to 10 days.
Decide Nancy Orr responded that given the blood-alcohol readings and the earlier conviction, he was taking a look at extra jail time than seven to 10 days.
For the impaired driving offence, Orr sentenced Scott to 30 days in jail, a $1,500 tremendous and banned him from driving for 2 years. As well as, Scott is required to pay a $450 sufferer surcharge.
Orr then sentenced Scott to 2 years of probation and $5,000 in restitution for damaging Syke View Farms’ fields.
Orr mentioned that driving on hay and potato fields doing donuts and damaging property is the kind of “silly” behaviour normally seen from youngsters who do not know any higher and never the behaviour of a 34-year-old grownup.
Because the property injury offence concerned Scott’s pickup truck, Orr issued one other driving ban beneath the probation order that covers any kind of motor vehicle, resembling an ATV, garden tractor, automotive, truck and snowmobile.
Additionally, throughout the probation interval, Orr banned Scott from being on any of Skye View Farms’ fields or every other fields that produce a crop until he has prior permission from his probation officer.
Terrence McEachern is a justice reporter with the SaltWire Community in Charlottetown.
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