CONDITIONAL SENTENCE AIMED AT HELPING LONGTIME ADDICT RECOVER

A Port Coquitlam provincial court judge handed down a conditional
sentence earlier this month meant to help a longtime drug addict
recover and stay out of "the revolving door of the courthouse."

Judge Marion Buller Bennett sentenced John Michael Durham, 48, to a
six-month conditional sentence after he pled guilty to committing two
break-ins in Coquitlam.

Durham pled guilty to breaking into a carport on Ingersoll Avenue on
June 18, 2005. He was trying to leave by the rear gate when the
homeowner's son chased him down and held him until police arrived.

Police searched Durham when he was arrested and was found to have
drug paraphernalia on him as well as a small container containing
what is believed to be heroin. Nothing had been stolen, but a $400
saw had been moved closer to the carport exit.

Durham was released on bail and came to the attention of police again
on Jan. 27, 2006 when he was caught breaking into a shed on Centennial Avenue.

He was found under a work bench inside of the shed with a bag and
bolt-cutters nearby. When police searched him, they also found a pair
of black gloves, a headlamp and a pair of scissors.

The Crown asked for jail sentences: time served for the first break
and enter, plus a six-month jail sentence and probation on the second
break and enter.

The defence asked Buller Bennett to consider a conditional sentence
order so that Durham could get treatment for his substance abuse problem.

Durham has a lengthy criminal record going back to 1973, including
prior convictions for robbery and theft under $5,000. He has also
been a heavy heroin user since he was 10 years old.

"I have to give you credit for the fact that, at 48, you have
realized it is time to deal with your heroin abuse problem," Buller
Bennett said. "I will give you that chance, at least to get started.
I think that if you can deal with your heroin addiction, you are
going to stay out of court, you are going to stay out of trouble, and
that is better for everyone. I do not think warehousing you in a jail
is really going to accomplish much at this point in your life anyway."

Buller Bennett then sentenced Durham to two, six-month conditional
sentences, to run concurrent with each other, with stipulations that
he must abstain from possessing and consuming alcohol or other
intoxicating substances and possessing any weapons or tools outside
of his place of residence or employment. The judge also ordered that
Durham reside at Wagner Hills Treatment program, obey the rules and
regulations of the residence and program, not leave without the
company of staff and take counselling and other programs as directed.

"This is not like probation where sooner or later the breach may or
may not catch up to you; this is instant and it is final. So there is
no trying to weasel your way out of any of these conditions," Buller
Bennett stated.

Durham was also given one year of probation after finishing the
conditional sentence.