By Keith Lacey
What started out as a hard day on the job, ended up with a Hanmer man with no previous criminal record breaking into 13 camps in the Kukagama Lake Road area one year ago.
Daniel Noel, 32, pleaded guilty to four counts of break, enter and theft Tuesday.
Noel was charged with more than a dozen counts, along with Robert Charette, 34, in relation to a rash of break and enters of camps April, 17, 2001.
Noel, through lawyer Edmond Paquette, waived his right to a preliminary hearing, asked that charges he and Charette were both facing be severed and he pleaded guilty to four counts.
Assistant Crown attorney Alex Kurke told the court Noel was working in Sturgeon Falls the day in question and put in a full day's work with an insulation company, before he and a partner decided to drink some beer in the Kukagami Lake Road area.
Kurke detailed how 13 different camps were entered and a wide variety of electronics equipment, alcohol, coins, tools and other materials were stolen.
In almost every camp, the front door and/or back door were kicked in to gain entry.
Kurke didn't give any dollar estimate of the amount stolen during the break-ins, but it was definitely in the thousands of dollars.
Noel was caught when police were given a description of a work truck, which was traced back to the company Noel worked for.
When confronted by police, Noel gave a statement detailing his involvement and all of the material he admitted to stealing was recovered by police, said Kurke.
Paquette said his client has no previous criminal record and would benefit from a pre-sentence report being prepared.
When Kurke told the court the Crown would be seeking a nine-month conditional sentence of house arrest for Noel when he's not working, as well as 12 months of probation and community service hours, Justice Yvan Renaud agreed a pre-sentence report should be prepared.
A date for Noel's sentencing hearing will be set today. It usually take six to eight weeks for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
No date has been set for Charette's trial.
