254826
254237

Kamloops  

House arrest, probation for lying to police about being robbed at gunpoint

Lied to police about robbery

A Kamloops-area man who led Calgary police on a wild goose chase by falsely claiming he had been beaten and robbed at gunpoint has been sentenced to house arrest.

Matthew Wilson, 24, pleaded guilty Thursday in Kamloops provincial court to one count of public mischief by making a false statement.

Wilson was living in Calgary on June 3, 2023, when he called police to report a robbery. He said he was robbed by a woman after meeting her on the side of the road and offering her a ride.

Wilson said the woman pulled a gun from her bag and struck him in the face, then forced him to withdraw $3,000 from his bank account. He said she fled in another vehicle, for which he provided a licence plate number.

Calgary police took the report very seriously, devoting a dozen officers to the case.

“[She] was actually falsely arrested and held in custody briefly during the investigation by Calgary police,” Crown prosecutor Oliver Potestio said in court.

“Her vehicle was seized and searched, there was a night entry warrant executed at her residence, her phones were seized and searched ... and police did locate money in her possession and in her vehicle — and that was seized.”

'Incredibly foolish'

Potestio said the initial investigation was a “significant" draw on the resources of the Calgary Police Service.

“This includes several hours of writing warrants and canvassing video footage to unravel what actually happened to Mr. Wilson,” he said.

The woman told police she works in the sex trade, and on her seized phone investigators found a text conversation in which she and Wilson set up their meeting on June 3.

She denied pistol-whipping Wilson and the police investigation determined she did not force him to withdraw cash or forcibly hold him.

Defence lawyer Joe Killoran said Wilson lived in Alberta for a few years while working in the oilfield, but he’s since moved back in with his parents in the Barriere area.

“It seems like it’s a good place for him to be — better than out on his own with more money than sense in Calgary,” he said.

“This was an incredibly foolish thing to do and wasted a lot of police time and resources, and caused significant inconvenience and hardship to [the woman].”

House arrest, probation

Wilson, who has no prior criminal record, was apologetic in court as Kamloops provincial court Judge Stella Frame went along with a joint submission for a six-month conditional sentence order to be followed by a year of probation.

Frame referenced the victim’s vulnerability as a sex worker in handing down her sentence.

“Offences against the vulnerable in our community are worse than other offences because the vulnerable are already subject to the whims of society and under pressures the rest of us cannot comprehend,” she said.

Wilson will be required to live under house arrest for the first two months of his sentence, then abide by a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew for two more months. While on probation, he will be required to attend counselling as directed and to complete 75 hours of community service.

For the duration of his sentence, Wilson will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim.



More Kamloops News



254170