Sentence increased for lawyer who helped gang in Vernon
Posted November 18, 2013 10:51 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A lawyer who admitted to feeding information to a gang in Vernon has had his sentence increased to 2.5 years.
The BC Court of Appeal says the one-year sentence originally handed to William Mastop was too lenient.
Mastop pleaded guilty to passing along information about police activities, such as search warrant documents, to a gang known as The Greeks.
Court heard he also tracked down drug runners who had been arrested or who had talked to the police and took members of the gang to a local gun club as his guests to practice shooting.
In a unanimous decision from the Appeal Court, Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein says the one-year sentence originally handed to Mastop was unfit and failed to reflect the gravity of his crimes.
Stromberg-Stein says Mastop abused a position of trust, and he passed along information knowing his actions could cause harm, including to confidential police informants.
