Find better friends, says judge, as man sentenced for gun crimes

A couple of men spotted pushing a dirt bike in the city's west end on a January night triggered suspicion that they were up to no good.

City police were contacted about the pair at 10:40 p.m. on Jan. 26 as they were trying to start the bike in the area of Alexander and Andrew streets.

Officers located three men, outside a Manilla Terrace address, who took off when they saw the cops and ran into an upstairs unit, a judge heard Friday.

The officers knocked on the door, and waited for backup.

Andrew Petts eventually opened the door and was taken into custody. 

They entered the apartment where they arrested two other men, one of whom was hiding in a bathtub.

The trio was charged with possession of stolen property.

As they were looking to see if there were more people in the apartment, the officers found a firearm and ammunition "in plain view" in the living room,  prosecutor Karen Pritchard said.

After obtaining a search warrant, they seized two firearms.

Petts, 32, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm while prohibited and possession of a rifle without a licence. 

The accused has a lifetime weapons prohibition which was imposed in 2010 and was on probation at the time, Ontario Court Justice John Condon heard.

He has "quite a substantial record" with similar offences, Pritchard said.

The assistant Crown attorney and defence lawyer Ken Walker jointly recommended a sentence of time served and two years probation.

There "were certainly triable issues" that were taken into account, along with the guilty pleas, Pritchard said.

Walker agreed, saying there were Charter issues regarding search and seizure, and the right not to be arbitrarily detained.

The time his client has spent in custody since his Jan. 26 arrest is a deterrent, he said.

"He met up with another male (that night) and one thing led to another," the defence told Condon. "A lot of it was happenstance."

When the judge imposed the sentence, he encouraged Petts "to start choosing his friends and company a little better," suggesting this "is going to assist you with probation."

With the enhanced credit of 1.5 days for each day spent in pre-sentence custody, Petts' time served for the offences is 266 days.

He will be probation for two years with conditions that include no contact with a co-accused.

Condon also imposed a further life-time weapons prohibition and ordered Petts to provide a DNA sample.