Haneytown man had stolen copper wiring
Brandon Canning, 38, admits to possessing stolen Bell Aliant property, no-shows in court
An Oromocto man will be sentenced in a couple of weeks’ time after admitting this week to numerous crimes, the most serious of which was possessing copper wiring used has part of a local telecommunications network.
Brandon Canning, 38, of Morehouse Road, had previously elected to be tried in provincial court and pleaded not guilty to a Nov. 29, 2022, count of possession of stolen property, namely copper wires belonging to Bell Aliant.
He appeared in provincial court in custody by telephone this week, as he’d been remanded last fall after several failures to appear in court as required.
Defence lawyer Michael Young told Judge Natalie LeBlanc on Wednesday his client was seeking to change his pleas to guilty on several of the charges and was looking to proceed to sentencing as soon as possible.
In addition to the stolen-wiring charge, Canning pleaded guilty Wednesday to breaching conditions by failing to attend court Jan. 31, stealing merchandise from a Scholten’s convenience store March 4, failing to attend court March 22, possessing stolen property belonging to two individuals July 5 and failing to attend court again Nov. 15.
Crown prosecutor Rodney Jordan requested victim-impact statements be sought in both stolen-property cases.
Because Canning was eager to be sentenced in short order, a sentencing date was originally set for Jan. 26, but the judge said Wednesday that wasn’t enough time for staff with victim services to reach out to the parties and arrange for the statements.
As such, LeBlanc rescheduled Canning’s sentencing hearing for Feb. 1, and she remanded him again until that date..
Young noted the Crown and defence would be making a joint recommendation on sentence at that time.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
I truly hope the judge makes an example of this copper thief. So many people are hurt by the actions of these copper thieves. a good long prison sentence might deter more of these thefts.