A 40-year-old Lethbridge, Alta. man entered a guilty plea for unlawfully using and camping in a national park without a permit.

Timothy Edward Arinbou was fined $100 in total at Invermere Court for his offence after Judge (Grant) W. Sheard took into account the cost of travelling to the Columbia Valley from Lethbridge for sentencing.

I accept your guilty plea, Mr. Sheard told Mr. Arinbou, while urging him to take responsibility for his actions in the future.

Between July 29th and August 2nd of 2015, a Parks Canada warden drove past three men who were walking through Kootenay National Park with a crossbow in sight. The warden searched the trio and found that they had neither camping permits, nor firearms permits.

The men were also travelling by foot without a vehicle and had planned to spend a significant amount of time in the area.

Ultimately, the warden provided the men with directions to Crown land and the group told him they planned to leave the next day. However, the warden spotted the same three men walking through the park on Settlers Road with plans to camp for four days after their initial warning. The warden drove all three men out of the park, writing them up.

Daryl John Wihelm Duda, 31, also entered guilty pleas for unlawfully using and camping in a national park without a permit as well as for carrying a firearm (crossbow) without a permit from the superintendent of the national park. Mr. Duda was fined $100 for camping without a permit and $100 for carrying a firearm. The third man has yet to enter a plea. Mr. Sheard offered fines at the lower end of the scale due to the fact that the men planned their trip in ignorance and had no aggravating factors beyond the warnings.

Domestic results in fine

An Athalmer man entered a guilty plea to assault after pushing his wife outside of their house on July 4th, while she was catching a cab.

The man was sentenced at the Invermere Court to a year-long conditional discharge, which includes conditions such as keeping the peace, updating his contact information and reporting regularly to a probation officer in Cranbrook. He will need to be assessed and attend counselling as the probation officer deems necessary.

In addition, he will need to abstain from drugs and alcohol during this one-year sentence.

The victim attended her husbands sentencing and expressed a desire to work on their relationship, adding their confrontation was due to a combination of financial woes and alcohol. The couple plans to relocate to Victoria to make improvements to their quality of life.

The man will have two months to pay a $100 victim fine surcharge to the court.