The biggest proceeds-of-crime forfeiture in B.C. history won't go through without a fight.
Roy Sundstrom, 59, is appealing the forfeiture decision handed down in Sechelt provincial court on July 28 ordering him to hand over his mortgage-free $600,000 Roberts Creek home to the provincial government. His lawyer, Jay Solomon, said Judge Carol Baird Ellan was legally bound to impose the stiff penalty because of a precedent established in a previous decision from a North Vancouver case.
"The sentencing judge was obligated to follow the court of appeal decision in Craig, and she did so," he said, referring to the defendant in that case, also a first-time grower.
In addition to the forfeiture order, Sundstrom was given a 15-month conditional sentence. He pled guilty to marijuana charges last July, including charges of possession of more than three kilograms of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and production of a controlled substance, after police raided what they describe as a highly sophisticated marijuana grow operation in his home on Lower Road.
In her reasons for decision, Baird Ellan said if partial forfeiture were an option, she would have considered it in this case, due to sympathetic factors: Sundstrom has no prior criminal record, was co-operative with the police, is nearly 60 and is a prostate cancer survivor.
The majority of forfeited homes come with a mortgage, meaning the province gains less equity than they would from a home that is owned outright, Solomon explained. That's been the case for most of the 30-odd homes forfeited in recent years.
Sundstrom argued in court that he didn't know he faced the possibility of losing his home over a conviction and lobbied for a $75,000 fine instead. But Baird Ellan noted judgements by the provincial Court of Appeal confirm forfeiture means the whole property gets taken.The Craig case from North Vancouver, as well as two other similar cases, one from B.C. and the other from Quebec, will be heard jointly before the Supreme Court of Canada on Nov. 13. Solomon will request Sundstrom's appeal be heard only after the outcome of this decision.
"We're going to apply to be held in abeyance [held over] until the Supreme Court of Canada make their decision," he said. Those three cases involved "significantly lesser property values" and all involve first-time offenders, he said.
