Police seized three shotguns, two rifles and a box of ammunition from the trunk of the car used in the robbery.

(JENNIFER STAHN / iNFOnews.ca)

KAMLOOPS - Four men who stole firearms and cash from a home before running from police in a high speed car chase which prompted an emergency mine closure were sentenced in Kamloops Supreme Court today, May 20.

Ellwood Bradbury, 24; Gopal Figueredo, 22; and Anees Mohammed, 23 were sentenced to three years in federal prison for breaking and entering a Cherry Creek residence on July 3, 2014. Kamloops Supreme Court justice Hope Hyslop handed a fourth man with no criminal record, Triston Wight, 19, 18 months in jail.

Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston said the four are not from Kamloops.

“They travelled here simply for the purpose of breaking into (that) home," Livingston said. 

Before he called 9-1-1, the resident said he noticed a silver car approaching his drive way and one of the men pointed a gun at the home-owner, Livingston said. 

Police chased the car towards the New Gold Mine site. After ditching the car, all four occupants fled on foot into the mine property to try and hide, but police arrested them shortly after. 

Along with cash, police seized three shotguns, two rifles and a box of ammunition from the vehicle’s trunk.

Livingston said the car was not registered to any of the accused. The men paid the car's owner to drive it to Kamloops.

“(He is) intellectually disabled and (police) found he was not able to provide a great deal of assistance,” Livingston said.

Crown added police found a gun and a Google Map printout of the Cherry Creek house in a hotel room rented by one of the men.

Hyslop accepted the joint submission for sentencing from all parties and acknowledged how the guilty pleas mitigated the term in sentence. Crown stayed robbery charges. 

Each man apologized to the court and said they don’t plan to return to a life of crime after serving the imposed sentence. Hyslop responded by telling each of the accused to take this moment to turn their lives around. 

Figueredo, Mohammed and Bradbury all received a lifetime ban on owning firearms. Wight is not permitted to own firearms for the next 10 years. 

To contact a reporter for this story, email Glynn Brothen at gbrothen@infonews.ca, or call 250-319-7494. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015