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Fentanyl Trafficker Driving Jaguar in Langley Has Sentence Increased to Five Years in Prison on Appeal
The British Columbia Court of Appeal imposed a five-year federal prison term for fentanyl trafficking, citing over 14,500 toxic drug deaths in eight years as a key factor.
- The British Columbia Court of Appeal overturned the Surrey provincial court judge's Nov. 12, 2024 conditional sentence for Kyle Robert Bird, 37, imposing a federal prison term.
- The Crown argued at the Vancouver hearing that the conditional sentence was 'demonstrably unfit' and out of step with fentanyl cases, prompting appellate doctrine intervention due to failed deterrence and denunciation.
- The Crown cited the June 2024 BC Coroners Service bulletin showing at least 14,582 toxic-drug deaths in B.C., with fentanyl as the primary driver.
- DeWitt-Van Oosten concluded that given Bird's significant moral culpability and the serious harm fentanyl poses, a non-penitentiary sentence was disproportionate, noting Bird showed no remorse or insight.
- The ruling underscores appellate oversight by emphasizing intervention when sentences depart from proportionality and supports deterrence and denunciation in fentanyl cases amid BC toxic-drug crisis and Coroners Service figures.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Fentanyl trafficker driving Jaguar in Langley has sentence increased to five years in prison on appeal
A drug dealer who drove around Langley in a Jaguar to traffick drugs, including fentanyl, has had his sentence increased to five years imprisonment after the B.C. Appeal Court overturned his original sentence of two years, most of it under house arrest, by a lower court.
B.C. drug dealer gets prison time in place of ‘demonstrably unfit’ house arrest
British Columbia’s top court has substituted a five-year prison sentence for house arrest for a Langley man caught with nearly $250,000 worth of ecstasy and fentanyl after his luxury car was seized as “an instrument of illegal activity.” The Crown successfully appealed the conditional sentence of just under two years and three years of probation that a B.C. provincial court judge handed Kyle Robert Bird last November after the now 38-year-old wa…
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