LAVISH CLAIMS BUNK: DEFENCE

Trafficker Good At Saving

He's not a high roller, just a hard worker. A man busted two years ago
with a then-record amount of cocaine has never lived a lavish or
luxurious lifestyle, despite Crown evidence suggesting otherwise,
court heard yesterday.

James Peter Jenner, convicted earlier this year of possessing cocaine
for the purpose of trafficking, was arrested in April 2002, after
police seized 17 kilograms of high-grade cocaine from a Sentinel
Storage locker registered in his name.

At the first day of his sentencing earlier this week, the Crown
tendered evidence to support its theory that Jenner, 42, has been
living the high life for years, likely off profits he garnered from
the cocaine trade.

But yesterday, defence lawyer Jay Prober rebutted the claims by
arguing the Crown's evidence, which included financial statements and
photo albums of trips to exotic locales, only proved Jenner was good
at saving his money.

UNREASONABLE?

"He's worked all his life. He started delivering papers when he was 10
and he started working full-time as a teenager when he finished Grade
10," Prober said.

"Is it so unreasonable for someone who's been working for the last 25
years to have collected some assets?"

Jenner's resume includes stints on the railroad, laying bricks,
constructing pools, starting up gyms and inspecting and purchasing
heavy equipment, Prober said.

Jenner's assets -- a modest home, 30-year-old pool and company car --
are in no way indicative of a man with well-financed criminal
connections, he said.

The Crown is seeking a 12-year prison sentence for Jenner, a term
Prober flatly blasted yesterday.

"The Crown is asking you to step outside the batter's box ... and
impose the kind of sentence that's unheard of," he told Queen's Bench
Justice Theodore Glowacki. "(That's) a sentence killers don't get, a
sentence rapists don't get and a sentence child molesters and other
violent criminals don't get."

Prober asked Glowacki to impose a sentence of between four and eight
years instead.

Glowacki has reserved his decision until a later date.