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A North Okanagan man, who was driving an ATV and trying to capture an escaped 2,000 lb. bull, will be going to prison for two weeks because his driving licence had been suspended.

In March 2023, Wade William Roth was driving a quad on Salmon River Road outside Armstrong searching for the escaped bull when he was pulled over by police for speeding.

The 58-year-old told police he didn't have a licence but thought it was OK because the quad wasn't considered a licensed motor vehicle and it was a country road.

Roth explained to the officer he was looking for an escaped bull, which if left on the loose could cause a serious accident.

Noticing his glassy eyes and slurred speech the RCMP officer breathalyzed him. He failed the test twice.

Roth's story was relayed at the Vernon courtroom Aug. 19, when he appeared and pleaded guilty.

For reasons that weren't explained in court, Roth wasn't charged with drunk driving, instead getting two charges of driving while his licence had been suspended.

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Referring to his lengthy driving record Crown prosecutors argued for 30 days jail.

His poor driving record goes back to 1985 and he'd done three months in jail for drunk driving in 2002. Three years later he was jailed again for 30 days for driving without a licence.

Representing himself, Roth told the judge what had happened that day.

He said he lived and worked on a dairy farm and had been up the night before drinking around a campfire.

The next morning he heard the bull had escaped.

"He's a big, big bull," Roth told the court.

He jumped on a quad and drove around looking for the animal.

Roth said he was worried what would happen if the bull had gotten a neighbouring farmer's field with cows. He didn't need to explain what might have happened.

He said the bull wasn't registered and if it got with a registered cow, it would have cost his boss a lot of money.

Roth also said he was very concerned about a car hitting the bull on the windy country road.

While he mainly drove the quad on farmland at one point he drove along the road, and that's when he was pulled over.

While the RCMP estimated he was doing 70 km/h, Roth disputed this saying the quad was old and couldn't go that fast.

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He also reiterated to the court that he didn't know he wasn't allowed to drive the quad on the road.

"It's a country road," he said. "I did not know. I swear... I'm just telling you the truth. I lost my job over this."

While the Crown wanted Roth to face a month behind bars, Judge Guild was far more sympathetic.

"Ignorance of the law is no excuse. On the other hand, you did everything that you could do to try to make sure you were obeying the law, but for driving on the road," the Judge said.

Judge Guild highlighted it had been almost a decade since Roth's last driving infraction and said Roth was helping out to deal with an emergency situation.

"In those circumstances, in my view, jail is not required," the Judge said.

However, the Crown pointed out that the mandatory sentence for the offence was 14 days in jail.

The Judge then handed out the minimum fine of $500 and offered Roth the option to do jail at the weekends or in one stint.

Roth opted to do it all at once.

It's completely unknown what fate Roth would have had if he had got himself a lawyer, but one argument he could have put forward is the defence of necessity, whereby an accused says breaking the law was justified because of an emergency situation.

While no precise details were given, the bull was finally captured.

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