A serious collision resulted in serious charges for a Bonnyville man.
Wyatt James Whitford pled guilty to possession of stolen property, following a Nov. 30, 2017 motor vehicle collision in the Lac La Biche area involving a semi-truck.
Lac La Biche RCMP attended the scene where a Ford F-350 had side-swiped a truck and rolled into the ditch. The driver, 21-year-old Whitford, was pinned behind the wheel.
Once he was extracted, Whitford was flown by STARS air ambulance to the hospital.
After running the vehicle identification number of the Ford F-350, officers discovered it had been reported stolen.
Whitford pled guilty to possession of stolen property exceeding $5,000 during a May court appearance in Bonnyville, where he also admitted to struggling with an addiction to methamphetamine.
According to Whitford, the collision resulted in severe injuries, including a broken femur. Since the accident, he told the court he has stayed away from drugs and the people he was associating himself with at the time, who were described as "individuals the court would be familiar with."
The truck itself was a total loss, but other than Whitford, no one was injured in the collision.
At the time of his plea, he adjourned sentencing until he could confirm details for his conditional sentence order, which would allow him to serve his six-month sentence in the community.
He appeared for sentencing in the Bonnyville Provincial Courthouse on June 5, where the details of the conditional sentence order were confirmed.
Whitford will spend three months under house arrest, where he will stay at his residence 24-hours a day, seven days a week, unless attending medical appointments, counselling, work, schooling, or in the case of an emergency, unless otherwise permitted by his probation officer.
He will have three hours per week to shop for the necessities of life.
The next three months Whitford will remain under a strict 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, where he is to answer the door to police at any time in person, and answer the landline when he is called for a check-in.
Following the completion of his conditional sentence order, Whiteford will serve a one-year probation.
Conditions of both the conditional sentence order and probation include no drugs or alcohol, not to possess or carry any weapons or firearms, reside at a residence approved by his probation officer, and provide a sample of his breath or urine when asked by police.
Should he fail to follow these conditions, Whitford could end up serving the remainder of his sentence behind bars.
According to Whitford, he has already completed a residential treatment program for his addiction to methamphetamine and is ready to get on with his life.
