A Kelowna drug dealer granted day parole after serving just two years of an eight-year sentence couldn’t stay out of trouble.
Leslie John McCulloch, 43, is back behind bars after the Parole Board of Canada decided last week he had “returned to behaviors consistent with (his) crime cycle”.
After he was released last fall, he was evasive and dishonest with his parole officer and ultimately became “unmanageable in the community”, the parole board said.
McCulloch was arrested in a large drug bust at a business on Auburn Road in West Kelowna in March 2016. The drug lab shipped as many as 100,000 fentanyl tablets to Calgary every month, the police said at the time.
McCulloch pleaded guilty but then was a no-show at his sentencing hearing in 2019. He was later arrested in Langley and was sentenced in July 2019 to just over eight years in prison for drug production and trafficking.
“Getting caught and going to jail changed my life,” McCulloch told parole members last year in his successful bid for day parole.
When he was granted parole, the board members expressed their belief he could be re-integrated “into society as a law-abiding citizen”.
Conditions of his parole included not associating with known criminals, not having anything to do with illegal drugs, and not having more than one mobile device, and following treatment plans for emotions management and substance abuse.
On Feb. 10, the parole board held a hearing with McCulloch and then canceled his day parole, finding he had violated the conditions.
“You were evasive and dishonest with all members of your supervision team, but particularly your parole officer,” the board said in a letter to McCulloch that was also released to media. “It is extremely difficult for your parole officer to monitor and manage your risk in the community when you are dishonest.”
“The board finds that your behavior was consistent with your established crime cycle,” parole board member HA Silbernagel wrote. “The problems with your performance on day parole were cumulative and the board agrees with your parole officer – that you became unmanageable in the community”.
