A B.C. man has been given an 18-month conditional discharge after pleading guilty to mischief and theft from mail in an incident where a blowtorch was used to get into a Canada Post mailbox.
Johnny Warren Leahy Page, 21, pleaded guilty to those charges as well a Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»charge of dealing with identity documents without lawful excuse when he appeared before Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Provincial Court Judge Patricia Bond on Sept. 12.
Crown prosecutor Miguel Oreta told Bond the damage to the mailbox in the 9800-block of Granville Avenue in Richmond occurred in October 2023. The theft was from the same location.
The court heard police found two men in a vehicle near the scene and found stolen mail and fake B.C. driver's licences. Tools found in the vehicle included a blowtorch.
On May 5, police arrested Leahy Page in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»and found numerous fake driver's licences as well as federal government cheques not in his name.
Leahy Page had originally been charged with theft from mail, wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer, possessing a forged document with intent to commit an offence and identity theft in connection with Richmond incidents.
Leahy Page was also charged with a Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»offence of theft under $5,000.
Leahy Page had no criminal record.
He must pay Canada Post restitution of $127, perform 55 hours of community work service and have no contact with his co-accused Cameron James Zbigniew Katulski against whom charges were stayed in July.
The charges to which Leahy Page did not plead to were stayed.