VANCOUVER — A man convicted of using an imitation firearm to rob or attempt to rob 11 Lower Mainland pharmacies of a painkilling drug has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
In imposing sentence on Aosama Salim Hmod Al-Isawi on Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Kelleher dismissed a defence application seeking to have a mandatory minimum sentence for such firearms offences declared unconstitutional.
The robberies occurred at pharmacies along the Kingsway corridor in Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster and Coquitlam from September 2011 to January 2012.
In one robbery at a Kingsway pharmacy, the tuque- and mask-wearing robber pulled out the imitation firearm and demanded the pain reliever Percocet.
“I’ll give you five seconds or I’ll shoot you,” Al-Isawi warned the pharmacist, who complied.
Vancouver police obtained a surveillance video and were able to use two images to produce a poster of the suspect, which they displayed online and arranged to have provided to local pharmacies.
In January 2014, a Vancouver pharmacist came forward and said she had recognized Al-Isawi.
The judge convicted him, after finding that the direct and circumstantial evidence against him was overwhelming and saying he did not believe the accused‘s denial of guilt.
“I would just like to say I’m sorry and apologize to the people that I hurt,” Al-Isawi told the judge before sentence was imposed on him Monday.
Crown prosecutor Jim Cryder noted that it was the first expression of remorse and the first acknowledgment of his guilt, and argued that the comments should be given little weight on sentencing. The judge agreed that the expression of remorse had come late for Al-Isawi, who earlier had claimed he had been falsely identified and was the victim of police corruption.
Kelleher noted that after the crimes, the victims, many of them working in small, isolated pharmacies, demonstrated similar themes of hyper-vigilance, fear of personal safety and trauma. He said the aggravating factors included the accused’s threatening behaviour and the multiple offences over a period of time. The mitigating factors included that he had no prior record and was addicted to painkillers.
The Crown, which in the face of the constitutional challenge had withdrawn eight of the 11 charges, had called for a sentence of eight years in prison. The defence called for a sentence of 18 months to three years.
