SURREY — A Surrey man who was convicted of carrying around a loaded Glock handgun in his handbag has been sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Glenn Harley Tetsuji Sheck, 33, was found guilty in May 2012 of possessing a loaded prohibited firearm. He was sentenced Thursday in provincial court in Surrey.
In November 2010, police who were watching Sheck in connection with an ongoing investigation received information that he carried a handgun in his Louis Vuitton man bag.
The surveillance team followed him from his home to a restaurant on 152nd Street, where officers asked Sheck to come out to the parking lot. Sheck complied and his bag was searched. Inside were a loaded Glock 26 and his cellphone. Sheck was arrested and charged.
After his conviction, Sheck’s lawyers challenged the three-year mandatory minimum sentence for firearms possession convictions as cruel and unusual punishment and a violation of Sheck’s Charter rights.
In January 2013, Judge James Bahen ruled the minimum sentence unconstitutional. The Crown made further arguments on the matter, which were rejected in February of this year.
Sheck’s lawyers then asked that the case be stayed because it took too long to get to sentencing. In June, Bahen ruled that Sheck suffered “serious prejudice†because of the delay of more than 42 months, but declined to stay the charge.
Crown asked for a three-year sentence for Sheck, while defence argued for a conditional sentence of 18 months to two years.
As Sheck’s young son called for “Daddy†outside the courtroom and his family and supporters looked on in the gallery, Bahen outlined his reasons for giving Sheck an 18-month jail sentence.
He called Sheck’s offence “particularly serious†and said that a conditional sentence order would not adequately reflect the need for denunciation and deterrence for the offence, based on the factors of the specific incident and the more general concerns about gun crimes in the community.
Bahen said Sheck’s offence would justify a sentence of two years in jail, but the restrictive bail conditions Sheck lived under for nearly four years, plus other factors, mitigated that sentence, and Bahen reduced it to 18 months.
Sheck was credited with 15 days of time served, leaving about 17 1/2 months in his sentence.
After he has served his time in B.C., Sheck will have to deal with outstanding charges in Washington state.
A warrant was issued after he was charged last year with money laundering and conspiring to engage in money laundering. It is alleged that he laundered or helped launder more than $5 million US and $410,680 Cdn in drug money.
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