Robbing $130, stealing two Subway sandwiches and driving dangerously has landed a Cawston man federal jail time.
Mike Wicentowich received three years and three months for three counts of robbery and one count of dangerous driving stemming from incidents in Penticton, Keremeos and a separate robbery in Vancouver.
Around 2:35 p.m. on Dec. 7, Penticton RCMP were dispatched to a robbery at Britannia Pies located on West Industrial Avenue. Wicentowich, who was on bail for robbing a Vancouver coffee shop of $80 on Aug. 30, demanded the Britannia Pies cashier give him money and flashed what looked like a gun in his waistband to the clerk. Wicentowich left the scene with $50. Two hours later, Wicentowich walked into the Keremeos Subway and ordered two sandwiches. When the cashier rung up his order, Wicentowich pointed what she believed to be a handgun. He then took the food and left. The employee went out the backdoor and began writing down the man’s licence plate number when Wicentowich noticed and pulled a gun out, pointed it and the employee retreated back inside calling 9-1-1.
About one block down Wicentowich ran into a vehicle and kept driving. RCMP found the man on Highway 3 speeding and driving erratically without headlights on. The officer then saw Wicentowich cross the centre line and hit a sedan head on, no one sustained serious injuries in the crash. RCMP found two Subway sandwiches and a toy replica gun on the passenger seat and recorded the man as having a blood alcohol level of 221 milligrams.
“It is rather a strange situation,” said Crown counsel Nashina Devji who was asking for a four to five year sentence. “Where someone with no criminal record all of sudden accrues a number of criminal charges.”
Wicentowich told Penticton RCMP he had purchased the gun from a store while out Christmas shopping and he had committed the robberies to pay for Christmas presents for his parents.
Wicentowich had been living with his parents who were trying to help him in his rehabilitation with alcohol and heroin.
Defence counsel Robert Maxwell had asked the court for a provincial jail sentence, two years less a day. He claimed the 31-year-old man would receive more assistance towards his rehabilitation including years of tough probation conditions including a curfew, rather than the less restrictive conditions when released with federal time.
“No probation, no parole. What you get is a loose cannon when he gets out,” said Maxwell.
The defence said Wicentowich had been an alcoholic for 14 years before he sought rehabilitation. It was only three weeks after leaving rehab that Wicentowich began using heroin. Last month, Wicentowich sent the Penticton Western News an apology letter for his acts and to the employees he scared.
“It was never my intention to scare either of you. I would have never harmed either of you,” said Wicentowich in the letter that also apologized to the people in the cars he crashed into. “The only thing that I am happy with this whole situation is that no one was seriously hurt except for myself ... I pray that at sometime I could be forgiven by those I affected. I just truly am sorry for my actions.”
On Aug. 30 Wicentowich went into a 24-hour coffee shop in Vancouver at 4:55 a.m. and told the cashier to hand over money from the till. When the employee said he couldn’t open the till, Wicentowich showed a small folding knife and told him to create a sale to open it. After being handed two $20 bills Wicentowich said it wasn’t enough and the employee gave him two more $20 bills. Police found Wicentowich later that morning where he confessed to committing the robbery because he needed money for drugs and alcohol and that he was sorry. He also wrote an apology letter to the coffee shop employee.
Wicentowich was also given a three year driving prohibition.
Krtisti Patton, BlackPress