DIRTY COP NETS LIGHT SENTENCE

No Jail Time For Helping Drug Dealers

BARRIE -- A former OPP officer who worked undercover told a judge
yesterday that he got lost in the sleazy world of cocaine, alcohol,
bars and bad guys and ended up losing control.

"I began to associate and socialize with the criminals I was
targeting," Scott Duguid said at his sentencing hearing.

"Drugs and alcohol clouded my thinking and corroded my values," he said.

Duguid, 35, of Phelpston pleaded guilty and was given a 12-month
conditional sentence and 18 months probation for breach of trust.

He was caught in 2003 giving the locations of marijuana fields in
Simcoe County to two criminals who harvested the crops before police moved in.

Defence lawyer Harry Black said the OPP was to blame for failing to
pull Duguid out when he was sinking because the force needed him to
infiltrate the Hells Angels. He suggested Duguid fed information to
criminals because he was grooming agents to infiltrate the cocaine trade.

Crown prosecutor Stephane Marinier scoffed at the defence, suggesting
Duguid was motivated by "greed" and profit.

"He should have been there, gun in hand, watching the backs of his
team," Marinier said. "Instead he was passing information to the bad
guys so the bad guys could put drugs on the streets."

Justice Joseph Wilson reviewed several letters of support from fellow
officers and sympathized with the dangerous life of an undercover
officer and the harsh world they live in.

Court had heard how Duguid lived in bars and slept on beaches and had
to become a stranger to his wife and children.

"One must cherish the difference between what one does and who one
is," the judge said.