A "driving rampage" through Prince George streets has earned an Enderby man a sentence of one year in jail, followed by 18 months probation.
Dustin Daniel Heltman, 25, was issued the term Wednesday in Prince George provincial court for a Nov. 14, 2015 incident that began when he knocked a small utility trailer off a pickup truck near College of New Caledonia then sped off.
Heltman, who had been prohibited from driving at the time, wound his way to the VLA, blowing through red lights, reaching speeds of up to 100 km/h and driving up onto a sidewalk to avoid RCMP, smoke pouring out of his van.
In passing sentence, provincial court judge Thomas Woods variously described Heltman's actions as a "driving rampage," an "episode of colossally-dangerous driving," a "consummate display of callous disregard for others" and "violent, out-of-control, highly dangerous conduct on his part that held the potential to cause calamitous consequences."
Heltman was originally scheduled to be sentenced in June but it was delayed to give him a chance to show he had turned his life around. Had he achieved that goal, Heltman would have been sentenced to house arrest, formally known as a conditional sentence order, which would have allowed him to keep working and support his family.
But Heltman ended up back in custody and now faces 17 new charges from alleged incidents in Vernon. The counts include assaulting a peace officer and driving while prohibited under the Motor Vehicle Act along with several breaches of release conditions.
Woods acknowledged Heltman has not been convicted on any of the counts. But he also noted Heltman's extensive list of breaches even prior to the 2015 event.
"I cannot, having regard to Mr. Heltman's criminal history, have any confidence that a well-crafted and properly restrictive and in some respects punitive conditional sentence order would operate to effectively constrain him from acting in contravention of its terms," Woods said.
Less credit for time served prior to sentencing, Heltman faces a further 257 days in jail. His term of probation includes a provision for treatment and counselling for addiction, which Woods said was at the root of Heltman's troubles.
