A 20-year-old man who took part in a terrifying home invasion of a Lions Bay couple has been handed a sentence of four years in jail.
Afzal Ismail Desai will spend about two and a half more years in prison – after receiving credit for time already served – for his part in threatening the couple with a fake handgun and keeping them tied up for four hours as he and another man ransacked their home in the early morning hours of May 27, 2014.
Desai was handed the sentence Nov. 30 after pleading guilty to four charges including break and enter, use of an imitation gun to commit an offence, disguising his face during an offence and theft of a motor vehicle.
Crown counsel Lori Ashton described how the home invasion began around 1 a.m. as Desai and another man entered the home on Bayview Road with their faces masked in balaclavas.
The homeowner first became aware something was going on when he heard noises coming from the hallway and saw two men coming up the stairs. The man ran back to the bedroom to warn his wife, said Ashton, but “he was hit on the head and pushed to the bed.”
The couple saw one of the men holding a black gun before they were forced to lie on the bed while their assailants placed blankets over them, then tied them up with duct tape and rope.
Ashton said Desai stayed to guard the couple while the other home invader demanded to know where the safe was. The assailants took the contents of the safe, which included approximately $11,000 in Canadian and U.S. currency, and a gold necklace as well as passports and diplomas.
The home invaders also went through the victim’s wallet and demanded credit and debit card pin numbers.
The man said he could hear one of his assailants talking on a phone, relaying those numbers to someone. The Crown’s theory is that two other people who were part of the plot drove to banks on the North Shore during the home invasion and used the cards to withdraw money from the victims’ accounts. About $3,000 was eventually withdrawn. In total, more than $10,000 was stolen from the couple.
The couple were kept tied up for about four hours, during which time the home invaders verbally threatened them, saying, “We’ll break your bones and “we’ll cut your fingers off,” if they didn’t co-operate, said Ashton.
The victims described one of the two assailants in the house as “particularly aggressive” while the other – later identified as Desai – as “the kinder” of the pair.
When the woman asked why they were targeted, the home invaders said, “Your husband knows why we’re here” and “Your husband has been naughty.”
Ashton said the Crown’s theory is that one of the people involved in the home invasion was a woman who was an escort whose services had been used by the husband. That’s how the home invaders – who included the woman’s boyfriend – knew there was a safe in the house, she said.
The assailants loaded stolen items including two laptop computers, an iPad, camera, liquor and wine into a suitcase, then took the couple’s car to make their getaway.
A subsequent investigation tracked the location of the four people charged by cellphone tower to both the home in Lions Bay and banks on the North Shore. Investigators also tracked numerous calls between the four numbers.
When Desai turned himself in to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment on another file in December 2014, he was arrested and made a confession. Desai told police he had been approached to take part in the home invasion, and thought the home they were going to belonged to drug dealers. Desai told police he was paid $1,000 for his role in the home invasion.
Desai’s lawyer, Jordan Allingham, told the judge his client was not the mastermind of the plot, and was only 18 at the time. He comes from an abusive background and bounced between foster homes growing up, said Allingham.
At the time of the home invasion, he had just “aged out” of the foster care system and needed money to pay rent, said Allingham.
In handing down her sentence, provincial court Judge Joanne Challenger she took into account Desai’s tragic background and that he was “a follower” rather than the leader of the plot.
But she added the experience must have been terrifying for the victims.
Three other people – Christine Marie Kessel, 23, Malcolm Jamel Eric Drydgen, 26, and a youth who cannot be named, also face charges in connection with the home invasion. Their cases are still before the courts. A trial is scheduled for next June.
