A judge told a young man with a horrible criminal record he believes he?s turned the corner in his life and would not be sentencing him to jail or a conditional sentence of house arrest.
Instead Justice William Fitzgerald sentenced Jim Couture, 24, to two years of probation and ordered him to do everything in his power to keep working full-time.
He also ordered Couture to repay $4,022 in restitution to Royal Bank.
Couture was charged with fraud under $5,000, failing to appear in court and another count of fraud after not making payments on a large-screen television he was renting by the month. All the charges were filed in March of 2001.
Couture told the court he?s made a lot of mistakes in his life and ?hurt a lot of people, including my family,? but he?s grown up, got into a meaningful relationship,became a father and found a full-time job.
?I am finally willing to accept responsibility?and be a responsible working man,? Couture told the court.
Fitzgerald asked Couture ?is this it,? in relation to ending his long criminal history.
Couture replied, ?Yes your honour.?
Fitzgerald told Couture he was impressed with the many changes he?s made in his life and told him he was going to give him a final break and not send him to jail either behind bars or as part of a conditional sentence order.
Considering Couture?s past history, a long jail sentence far in excess of the six months the Crown was asking for was not in order.
Defence counsel Alex Toffoli said Couture?s life started to unravel following the death of his mother in 1994.
His client started ?hanging out with the wrong crowd? and he got into regular trouble over several years, he said.
In 1999, Couture turned things around and stopped committing crimes, but had a brief lapse in March of 2001 and he knows he?s going to have to stay clean or face serious consequences, said Toffoli.
Couture is working full-time, is the father of a child with his common-law girlfriend and has matured greatly over the past couple of years, he said.
