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| NEWS - March 2, 2010 |
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| ‘Manipulative’ con man jailed for months on 22 charges |
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Andre Delaire
Post Staff
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A man who embarked on an 18-month crime spree stealing cars, evading police, and defrauding businesses and innocent people across the province has been fined more than $6,000, ordered to pay more than $25,000 to his victims, and will spend the next few months in jail.
Luke Leonard Huppie, 21, was sentenced on 22 Criminal Code charges and two Traffic Safety Act offences in Lac La Biche Provincial Court last Tuesday in one of the most confusing cases Judge Donald Demetrick has heard in a while.
Court heard that the 21-year-old spent 18 months committing crimes in the areas of Red Deer, Boyle and Lac La Biche. In that time, Huppie was arrested and released from police custody on three occasions. Following his third release, the young man fled from RCMP in a stolen vehicle — his second time engaging police in a pursuit in a two-day span.
Demetrick said Huppie has a "propensity and talent for criminality," and told court that the 21-year-old’s probation officer called him "highly manipulative."
In one incident, Huppie stole a car from a woman who had lost her husband two months earlier to suicide. Court heard that the woman had been helping Huppie who was struggling with his own problems.
Details of other fraudulent crimes left a similar trail of sorrow.
"Several different individuals and businesses were directly victimized," Demetrick told court, noting Huppie defrauded thousands of dollars from a number of businesses in Lac La Biche.
One merchant lost close to $7,000, a bank is out $2,700 and an insurance company in Boyle was defrauded nearly $8,000.
The seven months Huppie spent in custody before last Tuesday’s sentencing made him eligible for the two-for-one credit, knocking 14 months off his sentence. Even then the 21-year-old will have to spend several months in custody for his crime spree. Due to the confusion with his 24 offences, the exact length of his jail sentence is not known, but Demetrick told the accused he would be spending well over three months in custody.
Huppie opted out of paying several victim surcharges in exchange for extra time in custody, but told court he would be paying $5,750 in fines for being caught twice without vehicle insurance.
It will be up to Huppie’s victims to ensure he pays restitution for the money he took from them — and that could mean going to civil court. Demetrick ordered him to pay over $25,000 in restitution. |
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