A 26-year-old Surrey man caught driving in Burnaby while his licence was suspended got a tongue-lashing from a B.C. provincial court judge this week as well as a $300 fine and his third three-month driving ban in three years.
Arshdeep Singh Buttar was in court in Vancouver Monday for sentencing after pleading guilty to driving without a licence.
He had originally been charged with the more serious offence of driving while prohibited.
The charge relates to an incident on Canada Way on June 11, according to information presented by Crown prosecutor Louise Gauld.
She said police had stopped Buttar after he pulled into a left turning lane and then switched back across a double-solid white line.
Police later discovered he was under a three-month driving ban imposed in May.
Since getting his N in November 2018, Gauld noted Buttar had already racked up two three-month driving bans for offences ranging from not displaying his N to speeding to driving without due care and attention.
Julian Dollak, an articling student who appeared on behalf of defence lawyer Kyla Lee, said Buttar had gone to a Burnaby hookah lounge with a friend on June 11.
The friend had driven Buttar's car to the lounge, according to Dollak, but Buttar had driven back because his friend had had too many drinks.
"He deeply regrets his actions on that day," Dollak said.
Buttar, a permanent resident who arrived in Canada in 2016, needs his driver's licence because he supports his mother and has a drywalling business with nine employees who rely on his vehicles and licence to get to job sites, Dollak said.
"Mr. Buttar's proudest achievement is opening his business … and he does not want the driving prohibition to jeopardize his future."
But Judge Nancy Adams said driving in B.C. is a privilege, not a right.
"You've got to get it together," she said, pointing to Buttar's unenviable driving record since he arrived in B.C.
Adams said letting his friend drive his car to a "drinking lounge" while his own licence was suspended was a "very foreseeable error."
"You knew that even when you started out," Adams said.
Given Buttar's personal circumstances, however, Adams agreed the sentence proposed by both Gauld and Dollak was appropriate.
She handed Buttar a $300 fine and another three-month ban, warning him the province's superintendent of motor vehicles might well impose a further ban when that one was done.
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