BY KEITH LACEY
The increase in the number of robberies, especially those involving armed robbery with a knife, throughout the City of Greater Sudbury is staggering.
And the main targets are almost always convenience stores and gas bars.
Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Slater listed off some troubling statistics about the increase in armed robberies during a sentencing hearing Thursday against a Sudbury man convicted of robbing a New Sudbury convenience store last June.
?We?re in the middle of an upsurge of armed robberies,? said Slater as he pointed to a page containing crime statistics presented to him by the Greater Sudbury Police Service.
There were a total of 78 robberies in Greater Sudbury in 2003, a 39 per cent increase over 2002.
The increase in the number of robberies at convenience stores is shocking as there was a 162 per cent increase in 2003 over the previous year, said Slater.
Out of all robberies in 2003, 40 per cent took place at convenience stores and 26 per cent took place at gas stations, he said.
Of the 78 robberies reported, 76 per cent involved the use of a weapon and 59 per cent of armed robberies involved the wielding or threatened use of a knife, said Slater.
Since the federal government mandated a four-year minimum sentence for anyone caught using a firearm in the commission of a crime, criminals have resorted more and more to using knives as their weapon of choice in robberies and other crimes, said Slater.
Owners of convenience stores and gas stations often hire teenagers and young adults to work because they can provide inexpensive labour. The fact so many of these places are being held up by knife-wielding bandits is very troubling, Slater told Justice Ian Gordon of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
The courts are going to have to send a stern message that engaging in armed robbery and possessing and threatening hard working people with knives is going to exact a stern penalty, said Slater.
