FILE PHOTO: The vehicle in question was similar to this 2020 Land Rover Range Rover.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Wikimedia Commons
The BC government wants to seize a 2020 Land Rover from a Kelowna man after the vehicle was used to allegedly “terrorize” another motorist on a stretch of highway between Grand Forks and Kelowna in March 2021.
In a lawsuit filed by the Director of Civil Forfeiture in BC Supreme Court, the provincial government claims Brandon Revell of West Kelowna owns the luxury Land Rover Range Rover through a numbered company, listing his mother as its principal operator.
The director claims a Toyota Tundra with two occupants was on its way back to Kelowna from Grand Forks and had pulled over to the side of the road on March 24, 2021. According to the notice of civil claim, the Land Rover with tinted windows pulled up next to it, “stopped briefly, and then took off.”
When the Toyota got back on the road through Beaverdell, the Land Rover allegedly began speeding excessively and tailgating the other vehicle. The driver of the Land Rover then allegedly shot at the Toyota, brandishing a gun out of the vehicle’s window.
The occupants of the Toyota, “believing they were being shot at, they sped away, reaching speeds of 140-160 km/h,” the lawsuit states.
They called 911 with the Land Rover in pursuit, which allegedly ran the Toyota off the road when it couldn’t overtake it. The Toyota, according to the lawsuit, turned sideways into opposing traffic and rolled several times into a ditch.
“Neither occupant of the Toyota was seriously injured, and the [Land Rover] fled the scene,” the lawsuit states.
Within hours, the RCMP found a spent 9 mm bullet casing on the road and located the Land Rover parked in the driveway of a home at 9315 Paradise Road with front-end damage. Members of the Emergency Response Team descended upon the home and towed away the vehicle. A few days later, a search of the Land Rover turned up registration documents in Revell’s name, while officers also discovered an illegal “modified hidden compartment in the center console” of the vehicle.
The Director of Civil Forfeiture claims Revell bought the Land Rover in October 2020 for $167,744, through his numbered company, 1212471 BC Ltd., from a dealer that operates another numbered company, 0754877 BC Ltd. The dealer company maintained a security interest in the vehicle to secure payment, the director claims, and had told the BC government that it planned to repossess the Land Rover when informed about the impending forfeiture action.
The dealer, as a so-called “uninvolved interest holder” in the property sought to be seized, then allegedly agreed to an undertaking to not return the vehicle to Revell or any of his family members, prompting the government to release the vehicle.
However, in May 2022, the director found out that the vehicle had been given back to Revell in breach of the undertaking.
“By returning the vehicle to the Revell defendants, the dealer knew or out to have known of the Revell defendants’ use of the vehicle to engage in the unlawful activity,” the lawsuit states.
Kelowna business license information shows that the dealer numbered company is located at a Kelowna car dealership’s address, Elite Auto Centre, which is not named in the lawsuit. However, owner Korey Gaspari told iNFOnews.ca that the numbered company is owned by a former business associate who maintains an auto leasing business and uses the dealership’s address to receive the odd piece of mail.
Gaspari said he hadn’t seen the company’s owner, Warren Lindquist, in about a year and would no longer allow the numbered company use of the dealership’s address. Lindquist did not return iNFOnews.ca’s calls for comment on this story.
It’s unclear from the court document that Brandon Revell, who has a lengthy criminal history, was ever charged in relation to the incident that saw Midway RCMP seize the Land Rover. However, Revell faces a number of other charges from July 2022 including breaking and entering, mischief, uttering threats and obstruction of justice. He’s due back in court in March 2023 on those charges. His defense lawyer, Corey Armor with Tessmer Law in Kelowna, was out of the country and unavailable for comment when contacted by iNFOnews.ca.
Midway RCMP did not provide comment to iNFOnews.ca about the Land Rover incident by press time. Revell and both numbered company defendants had not filed responses to the Director of Civil Forfeiture’s lawsuit by press time.
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