Drug dealer stays out of jail

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A Kamloops man who was sentenced to a two-year conditional sentence and 500 hours of community service for his role in a dial-a-dope cocaine trafficking ring will remain out of prison, after an unsuccessful appeal by the Crown.

Steven Lloyd Currie, 30, was arrested in October of 2012 as part of an eight-month RCMP investigation into a Kelowna cocaine dealing ring. Currie had managed the drug line for 6.5 months.

He was charged in July 2013 and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic cocaine in February 2016.

The two-year conditional sentence imposed on Currie allowed him to serve the sentence under house arrest and not in jail.

Crown had sought a four-year prison term for Currie, claiming Currie's sentence was unlawful and unfit.

Justice Gregory Fitch recently found the sentence imposed on Currie illegal, as the Criminal Code only allows a conditional sentence of less than two years.

Additionally, Fitch found the 500 hours of community service handed down to Currie to be too high, as the court is unable to give more than 240 hours of community service for a probation order.

The conditional sentence was reduced by one day, making the sentence legal, and the community service was reduced to 240 hours for probation, with an additional 240 hours added to the conditional sentence.

Fitch said in his ruling that Currie should have been given a “low end penitentiary” sentence instead of the conditional sentence, as “the sentence fails to convey the strong denunciatory message that was required.”

Despite this, Currie will not be sent to prison, as the “the interests of justice are best served by allowing the respondent to serve out his conditional sentence in the community where he has made significant rehabilitative strides.”

Fitch said that intervening with Currie's sentence at this point could “jeopardize the rehabilitative path” he is currently on.