A Prince George man among those arrested when a team specializing in combatting in auto crime was in the city was sentenced Thursday to six months in jail.
Collin Michaud Durrand, 29, was also sentenced to one year probation and must take counseling for drug addiction as part of the terms issued in provincial court. Less credit for time served prior to sentencing, he had one day left to go in the jail term.
Durrand was arrested on July 30, 2019 when members of the B.C. Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team were in Prince George.
A member noticed a flat-deck Ford F-450 pickup truck matching the make and model of one stolen from a used auto dealership three weeks prior parked at the corner of Norwood Street and Porter Avenue with a licence plate from a different model of pickup.
A tracking device was attached to the truck and about two hours later, police saw Durrand hop into the vehicle and drive away. When Durrand stopped at a cash store on Victoria Street, he was arrested.
Police also found two water pumps, reported stolen from the Cluculz Lake Volunteer Fire Department five days before the apprehension, along with a lock pick and a variety of keys used to break into vehicles. The truck's ignition and driver's side lock were doctored so the truck could be entered and started without a key, the court was told.
Durrand was sentenced to five months and one day for possessing stolen property over $5,000 in relation to the pickup truck and to concurrent terms of 91 days for possessing stolen property under $5,000 for the water pumps and 21 days for the break-in instruments.
He was also sentenced to 30 days in jail for being unlawfully at large for failing to show up at Prince George Regional Correctional Centre on a weekend in February 2019 to serve a portion of an intermittent sentence. That term was consecutive to those related to the stolen pickup truck.
And Durrand was sentenced to 31 days for obstructing a peace officer and 14 days for breaching probation for being out past his curfew in November 2019, both concurrent to the other sentences.
In January, David Arthur Juillette, who was apprehended by the team the day before Durrand was arrested, was sentenced to 324 days in jail and one year probation after he was found behind the wheel of a stolen pickup truck.
