VIGILANTE HANDED COMMUNITY SERVICE

A man who helped stage a home-invasion armed robbery in a vigilante
effort to frighten a cocaine dealer was handed a community sentence yesterday.

Randal David Fox, 36, was sentenced to two years less a day and
allowed to serve it in the community with a curfew, after pleading
guilty to break and enter to commit robbery and wearing a mask while
committing an offence.

Testimony last month at the sentencing of his accomplice revealed
Fox, 36, was one of two men who donned ski masks and burst into the
apartment home of an admitted cocaine dealer at 804 Esquimalt Rd.

As part of a plan to convince the cocaine dealer to stop selling to
young people, Fox carried a role of duct tape while his masked
partner had a sawed-off shotgun, which court heard was unloaded.

The two demanded money and drugs and received about $200 and about 40
grams of cocaine, worth about $3,200 to the dealer.

Police arrested the two men a short while after the robbery,
recovering the drugs, money, masks and gun.

Fox's accomplice, Rick Zarelli, 47, of Saanich, pleaded guilty last
month and was also handed a community sentence of two years less a day.

Provincial court Judge Robert Higinbotham said Fox and Zarelli were
equally involved and deserve the same sentence.

"It was clear you were both working together," said Higinbotham.

The judge did, however, assign Fox only 65 hours of community-service
work. Zarelli was assigned 100 hours.