A man charged with drunk driving in Burnaby last fall has been sentenced to one year of probation, a one-year driving ban and $1,150 in fines after pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.
Afor Beckley Okegberu, 54, was pulled over by police on Kensington Avenue near Canada Way shortly before midnight on Sept. 12, 2022, according to agreed facts presented at a sentencing hearing in Vancouver provincial court Monday.
Another driver had called police to report a Toyota Corolla “swerving across lanes of traffic with no lights on.”
“The complainant reported that the vehicle was moving slow and unable to maintain its lane,” Crown prosecutor Louise Gauld told the court.
When police pulled Okegberu over, Gauld said he was unable to provide his driver’s licence right away because “he was unsure what card he was pulling out.”
Breath samples he provided registered at about four times the legal limit for alcohol, according to Gauld.
“His level of intoxication was extreme in this case,” she said.
Okegberu was originally charged with impaired driving and driving with a blood alcohol level over 80 milligrams but pleaded guilty Friday to the lesser Motor Vehicle Act charge of driving without due care and attention.
Gauld noted Okegberu didn’t have a criminal record but had been banned from driving before for impaired-driving-related offences: a 90-day ban for refusing to provide a sample in 2020 and a three-day immediate roadside prohibition in 2021.
Acumen Law articling student Suneet Bajwa, who represented Okegberu during the hearing said his client had been “very nervous” when police pulled him over last fall because “he had not been pulled over by police in his life.”
But B.C. provincial court Judge Laura Bakan interrupted to remind him Okegberu had been banned from driving twice.
“If he was never pulled over by police in his life before, how did he incur the driving record?” she asked.
“Oh, sorry,” Bajwa said.
“You just have to be careful when you speak,” Bakan said.
Despite the aggravating factors, Gauld noted Okegberu had pleaded guilty even though there had been “triable” issues in the case.
In a joint sentencing submission, she called for $1,150 in fines, a one-year driving ban and one year of probation with alcohol and drug counselling.
Bakan accepted the submission and sentenced Okegberu to the fine, ban and probation.
She warned him breaching the ban or probation would “almost 100 per cent” lead to criminal charges.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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