A man taken into custody on a Canada-wide warrant in Ontario is now serving 2.5 years in jail after facing charges in B.C. dating back to 2011.
Peter Dirk Bootsma, 50, pleaded guilty to care or control of a vehicle while impaired, flight from a peace officer and two counts of operating a motor vehicle while disqualified after being arrested in Ontario in February.
Two separate incidents dated a year apart involved Bootsma operating a motorcycle while disqualified.
On Aug. 2, 2012 after pulling over at an RCMP check stop set up during a drunk driving enforcement campaign in Coalmont, Bootsma told an officer he needed to get his license out of his bag. Bootsma eventually revved his engine and took off from the check stop towards Princeton. He was chased by a police vehicle and eventually caught on Coalmont Road at gunpoint.
A year earlier on Aug. 21, 2011 Abbotsford police responded to a complaint from a man who said he was hit while making a left turn by a motorcycle Bootsma was operating. Bootsma and the man pulled into a complex after the incident and Bootsma said “I ought to shoot you” to the driver.
“I realize my actions were stupid, foolish irresponsible,” Bootsma said. “I have no excuse for them.”
Crown prosecutor John Swanson sought four years jail time for Bootsma saying that the step-up principal applied to the sentencing due to what he called a “horrific criminal record for motor vehicle violations.”
Defence counsel Robert Maxwell asked Judge Gail Sinclair to give Bootsma two years in jail.
“It’s not a light sentence by anyone’s standards,” Maxwell said.
Sinclair handed down a three-year driving prohibition to begin after Bootsma’s jail sentence ends.