Kelowna RCMP want unnamed prolific offender held until trial

Photo: Colin Dacre

Police in Kelowna are calling for an unnamed prolific offender to stay behind bars until his trial.

Kelowna RCMP says officers on patrol in the downtown core early Tuesday morning had been “made aware” that a well-known prolific offender was a suspect in several recent break-and-enters of local businesses.

The officers recognized the man from previous encounters and confronted him. The offender tried to avoid arrest by providing a false name, which did not fool the officers, who promptly arrested him on charges of break-and-enter, attempted theft and theft of a security camera.

RCMP say the suspect has also been charged with failure to comply with probation conditions.

Mounties say he committed nine burglaries in Kelowna and West Kelowna from mid 2020 to early 2021 and was sentenced in May 2021 to “various jail periods” and “appears to have served over a year in custody.”

RCMP have declined to identify the suspect and did not provide an explanation for not doing so.

“The Kelowna RCMP dedicated many hours of investigation in order to remove this person from the streets of Kelowna and protect our community. The Kelowna RCMP would like to see him held in custody until trial,” said Sgt. Desmond Kiehlbauch, acting investigative services officer for the Kelowna RCMP.

Police in Kelowna have taken a far more active approach recently in advocating that the courts hold prolific offenders until trial after they are arrested. The marked change in communications came after Kelowna was reported to have the worst crime rate in Canada by StatsCanada.

Last week, the detachment sparked an uproar in the community when it publicized the courts’ release of a man with hundreds of police interactions since 2016. A judge on Friday revoked that offender’s bail after his second arrest in a week.