A final loose end in the Joey Lamont Arrance saga has been tied up.
A B.C. Supreme Court master issued a consent order this week handing over to the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office nine items of jewelry and most of the cash RCMP had seized from the now-slain gangster who gained a large amount of infamy during his time in Prince George.
Based on 2011 prices, retail value of the pieces adds up to $193,256. The CFO will also get $24,980 in cash but must then give $4,996, or 20 per cent of that total, plus any interest accrued, to Albert Allan Arrance, the administrator of Arrance's estate.
In all, it adds up to $213,240 before interest. When the CFO first started proceedings in July 2012, it was seeking forfeiture of 34 items of jewelry adding up to $245,422.40 but 25 of those items were turned over to Kirsten Sabrina Campbell Fredin and the estate of her now-deceased mother, Linda Joyce Fredin.
The CFO alleged Kirsten Fredin was Arrance's girlfriend, that they derived their income solely from trafficking in narcotics and that Linda Fredin held a portion of jewelry in a safety deposit box to prevent its seizure by the RCMP.
However, Kirsten Fredin convinced a B.C. Supreme Court she was not Arrance's girlfriend, only that he had been living at her mother's 4337 Foster Rd. home for about two months when RCMP executed a search warrant on Sept. 19, 2010.
The raid was part of a sequence of events that also saw the wheelchair-bound Linda Fredin die from injuries sustained in a late-November 2010 fire at the home. The blaze erupted less than 24 hours after a fire gutted a tattoo parlour Arrance allegedly owned at the corner of Victoria Street and Seventh Avenue.
Arrance, who had remained in custody since his arrest in September 2010, eventually pleaded guilty to a firearms-related charge after a police uncovered a loaded handgun, a dummy grenade and a soft-armoured vest during a raid of the home.
In May 2012, he was sentenced to a further three-and-a-half months in jail and then banned from coming within 100 kilometres of Prince George for a further 18 months for the offences.
Arrance also faced a charge of sexually assaulting a woman at the Renegades clubhouse in July 2010. In November 2011, he was found not guilty of the offence following a trial before a provincial court judge.
Then, in late August 2013, he was shot dead while sitting in a luxury sport utility vehicle in a Coquitlam parking lot. Arrance, who was 34 years old, had attempted to drive a short distance before dying in what the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said was a gang-related homicide.
No suspects have been arrested in the shooting, nor have any been arrested for the 2010 fire, which police deemed suspicious.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the CFO has seized $6 million so far this fiscal year and it took in more than $11.1 million in 2013-14. In 2014, the government provided a record $5.5 million in grant funding to crime prevention programs.
The Civil Forfeiture Act gives the CFO the power to seize property alleged to be the instrument or proceeds of illegal activity even in the absence of criminal charges or convictions related to the alleged acts. Unlike criminal proceedings, the act relies on the civil standard of proof - the balance of probabilities - rather than on the higher standard of beyond reasonable doubt.
Forfeited
Here's a list of the nine items of jewelry the Civil Forfeiture Office has been able to seize from Joey Lamont Arrance's estate:
Man's yellow gold diamond pendant (10 karats, 174.3 grams) $42,610.40
Man's Brietling watch (342.3 grams) $37,916.00
Man's yellow gold chain (12 karat, 416 grams) $30,284.80
Man's white gold diamond ring (14 karats, 58.3 grams) $26,073.60
Man's white gold diamond ring (18 karats, 35 grams) $22,797.60
Yellow and white gold diamond cross pendant (52.3 grams) $15,444.80
Man's yellow gold diamond ring (12 karats, 107.9 grams) $12,331.20
Man's yellow gold demon garnet ring (10 karats, 49.5 grams) $3,472.00
Yellow curb link chain (10 karats, 44.3 grams) $3,225.60
All are approximate retail values as of Aug. 19, 2011.
