A man who admitted to setting a fire inside the only full-service grocery store in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside earlier this year has received a two-year conditional sentence followed by two years of probation.
Victor Atkinson, 50, was originally charged with arson to inhabited property and theft in the March 30 fire at Nesters Market but pleaded guilty in June to the lesser charge of arson to property.
At a sentencing hearing Thursday, the court heard Atkinson, who was captured on surveillance and quickly identified by store management and police immediately after the fire, confessed to the crime.
Following his arrest at the nearby Gastown Hotel SRO, Atkinson told police he started the fire at Nesters in the Woodward’s building as a distraction tactic so he could continue shoplifting, which he does to support his drug use.
While acknowledging his guilty plea saved court time and considerable Crown and police resources, prosecutors said Atkinson posed an incredible danger to everyone else – just so he could shoplift.
In seeking a two-year jail sentence, prosecutor Tyler Maclean said Nesters Market was packed, with hundreds more people inside the apartments above it, and that the fire caused significant damage to the store and the community.
“The danger posed to anyone in the area was extreme and could have resulted in catastrophic loss of life,” Maclean told the court.
Also aggravating, said the Crown, are the 14 property crime offences on Atkinson’s record – almost all for shoplifting.
“By his own admission, he’s a serial shoplifter?” asked B.C. provincial court Judge David St. Pierre.
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“Yes,” Maclean replied, “Mr. Atkinson isn’t shy about the fact he shoplifts to support his lifestyle.”
Defence counsel told the court his client had no malicious intent in his spontaneous decision to light a fire near a stack of toilet paper, and thought it would just “create some smoke.”
“It was a total one-off, it was not Mr. Atkinson’s intention whatsoever to do that,” lawyer Jordan Allingham told Global News. “It’s a really unfortunate series of events but it’s very unlikely that we’ll see Mr. Atkinson back before the courts with any sort of similar type of offending.”
Allingham said the biggest risk factor is his client’s substance misuse.
“His record is a product of shoplifting to support his addiction,” Allingham told the sentencing hearing.
Court heard Atkinson, who has been in custody since the March 30 incident, is on methadone and wants to return to his supportive housing at the Gastown Hotel, where Community Builders has a room for him at the end of the month.
No one was injured in the fire but Pattison Food Group said it caused more than $500,000 in damage, and forced Nesters to close for two weeks.
Maclean referenced a victim impact statement from store manager Denin Ulriksen, which detailed thousands of dollars in lost product, water and smoke damage, and included a plea for further action to address crime and hold people accountable.
Atkinson apologized in court to those affected, including tenants above Nesters, market management and the people inside at the time of the fire.
The incident he said, “gave me a little bit of a wake up.”
“I’m staying on methadone. I feel good. I want to continue on this road,” Atkinson told the judge.
In granting the defence’s request for a conditional sentence, St. Pierre described Atkinson as “one of the few candid folks we get coming through these courts” and said in the circumstances, it’s the most appropriate sentence.
“You are going to be held accountable for every decision you make from now on,” said the judge, adding he doesn’t want Atkinson to lose his supportive housing and hopes to dissuade him from thieving from people.
“He wants Mr. Atkinson to be a positive and contributing member of the community and if he’s not, he’s going to send him back to jail,” Allingham said outside court.
The Gastown Residents Association (GTA) said the sentence is not strong enough given there was a possibility of the fire spreading to the entire Woodward’s building.
“The actions … had the potential of being absolutely deadly,” GTA president Brian Davie said in an interview. “The courts had an opportunity here to send a message, which was you can’t light stores on fire, and they chose not to.”
Atkinson must abide by house arrest conditions for the first six months of his community sentence, followed by a curfew. He’s also been ordered to abstain from drugs and alcohol and not attend any Nesters stores in B.C.
“The fact that he’s now being returned back into Gastown is absolutely crazy,” said Davie.
Judge St. Pierre said he hopes Atkinson makes it, explaining he never gets to see people who are successful – only the failures.
When asked outside court if he thinks he’s going to make it, Atkinson replied, “Oh yeah.”
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