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B.C. Appeal Court increases sentence of man found with a loaded revolver in Burnaby traffic stop

Citing the growing danger of gun violence in B.C., the B.C. Court of Appeal has increased by a year the jail term imposed on a man convicted of possessing a loaded, restricted firearm.

Citing the growing danger of gun violence in B.C., the B.C. Court of Appeal has increased by a year the jail term imposed on a man convicted of possessing a loaded, restricted firearm.

RCMP arrested Terrence David Holt during a routine traffic stop in Burnaby in December 2011.

Court heard that he and a female passenger in his truck had been drinking and smoking crack cocaine.

When police spotted a crack pipe containing residue on the console between the front seats of the vehicle, they arrested Holt for possession of drugs.

An incidental search of the vehicle revealed a backpack containing a loaded .22 calibre revolver and a box containing 43 cartridges that could be used in the firearm.

At trial, Holt claimed the gun and ammunition belonged to an acquaintance but B.C. Supreme Court Justice Lisa Warren didn’t believe his story and found him guilty of the firearms offence.

The judge found that a three-year mandatory minimum for the offence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment and struck down the law. Instead, she imposed an 18-month jail term on Holt, a man living on the margins of society and with no prior criminal record.

The Crown appealed the sentence, urging the court to re-align the sentencing range for such firearm offences in B.C. to accord more closely with the range in Ontario and other provinces, where sentences reflect a feeling that gun crime has become a “nationwide phenomenon.”

Holt’s lawyer opposed any increase in sentence for his client, emphasizing the “inflationary” effect of the three-year mandatory minimum on sentencing and arguing that an 18-month term was not insignificant and would sent a message to denounce and deter the crime.

But in a ruling released Tuesday, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Mary Newbury said she was unable to accept the defence arguments and found the sentence imposed to be unfit.

“In my view, the possession of a loaded firearm does pose a serious threat, and a growing one, to communities across Canada,” the judge said in her reasons for judgment.

“There is no reason why British Columbia courts should take this threat less seriously than other Canadian courts now do.”

Justices Ian Donald and John Savage agreed with Newbury and Holt’s sentence was increased to 30 months in jail.

kfraser@theprovince.com

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