Long-time prolific offender in Penticton set to be released after recent time-served sentence

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Seamus Kirby

A Penticton man with a largely unbroken criminal record dating back more than 10 years will be released from custody in a few days, after he was sentenced once again on Wednesday.

Seamus Kirby, 33, has been in custody since May 2023, two weeks after he fled from police in a stolen truck in Penticton. But after striking a plea deal with the Crown – pleading guilty to flight from police and dangerous operation of a vehicle – he was sentenced to mostly time served on Wednesday afternoon, with an additional four days left on his jail sentence.

The incident occurred back on May 10, 2023, when police noticed a white Ford F-350 parked on Penticton's Winnipeg Street. The truck had been stolen from West Kelowna nine days prior.

Officers attached a tracking device to the truck and then observed several men coming and going from the truck.

Some time after 2 p.m., two men drove the truck to the Walmart parking lot where several police officers blocked in the truck with their own cruisers.

Several of the officers recognized Kirby in the drivers' seat, having dealt with him for the previous eight years. One officer approached the driver-side window and yelled, “You are under arrest, stop, police!”

Instead, Kirby rammed into one of the police cruisers with the truck and managed to flee the area, driving away and losing the police. By using the tracker, officers were able to track the truck up Green Mountain Road and into the West Bench residential neighbourhood.

At some point, the officers were ordered not to pursue Kirby, due to concerns about a high-speed chase in a residential neighbourhood in the middle of the day. The truck was later found abandoned on Penticton's Maple Street and a warrant was issued for Kirby's arrest.

Kirby was then found by police on May 23 and he's been in custody ever since.

An 'unenviable' record

During Wednesday's sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Ann Lerchs noted Kirby has racked up 44 criminal convictions, and the only notable breaks in his offending since 2013 have been when he's been behind bars. His defence counsel Michael Patterson conceded Kirby's record is “unenviable.”

Lerchs also said Kirby has racked up eight institutional disciplinary charges at Okanagan Correctional Centre since his May 2023 arrest.

Patterson said Kirby has used methamphetamine and fentanyl since he was about 20 years old, which coincides with when his criminal offending started. Patterson said Kirby has lost many friends to overdoses and is now committed to stay clean from drugs after his most recent stint in jail.

But Kirby has told the court he's ready to turn his life around in the past. During a sentencing hearing back in 2017, he said he needed to make a change because he wasn't getting any younger. But he's been in and out of custody since then.

“That change has not taken place as of yet, but we have faith and hope in people that with this jump up in sentence, that Mr. Kirby will now make the changes that are necessary,” Patterson said.

'You've got to turn these things around'

Justice Briana Hardwick ultimately went along with the proposed joint submission from the Crown and defence, of 23 months incarceration followed by two years of probation. With enhanced credit for time served, this leaves Kirby with just four days left to serve in jail.

Kirby apologized to the court and said he regretted his actions.

“I'm not going to belabour this point, because you've probably heard it from judges other than me, but maybe not one with pink glasses,” Justice Hardwick told . “You are a young man still, with a very unenviable court record. You've got to turn these things around, it's not helping you ... You've got to make this your day of change.”

“I totally understand,” Kirby replied.

As part of the plea deal, Lerchs directed Justice Hardwick to stay Kirby's charges of assaulting a police officer and driving while disqualified.