House arrest upgraded to jail for North Okanagan horse owner | iNFOnews | Thompson-Okanagan's News Source
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Vernon News

House arrest upgraded to jail for North Okanagan horse owner

FILE PHOTO: In this file photo from March 14, 2017, Gary Roberts, 72, speaks with reporters after being sentenced at the Vernon Courthouse.

VERNON - Armstrong senior Gary Roberts will be serving his sentence behind bars rather than in the community.

Yesterday in Vernon Provincial Court, a judge told Roberts he would be spending the rest of his nine-month conditional sentence order in jail. Roberts, 72, was sentenced to house arrest March 14, but breached two of his conditions and was back in court in less than a month.

Roberts, a former school teacher, was convicted in December 2016 of causing unnecessary pain or suffering to an animal and failing to provide the necessities of life.

He was charged after the SPCA seized 16 emaciated horses from his property in rural Armstrong in 2014. In all, Roberts had roughly 130 horses.

The horses were sold at a court-ordered auction in 2015.

Roberts is banned from owning animals for 20 years.


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