Canada, Monitored all the time

OFF THE WIRE
BY: FIONA ISAACSON
Source: thepeterboroughexaminer.com

Bob Pammett says police are following him around the clock and the Crown gave several instances Wednesday why that could be the case.

After being found not guilty of dangerous driving Pammett was released on bail but not before Crown attorney Jim Hughes argued the 60-year-old needed to be kept behind bars.


The convicted cocaine dealer is still before the court on a charge that he breached a conditional sentence of house arrest.

Pammett wears an electronic monitoring device as well.

City police say that on July 24 Pammett was with nine members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang during his two-hour period on Saturdays for personal errands.

Intelligence available to police was that the meeting was to start an Outlaws chapter in Peterborough, Hughes said.

While there is only one allegation before the court, as Madam Justice Esther Rosenberg pointed out, Hughes listed three occasions where officers say they saw Pammett on Brown St. talking to resident Rory Vader, who was once affiliated with the Outlaws biker gang, sometimes with another two individuals.

Hughes also said Pammett has been seen by police using pay phones and there have been 18 alerts on Pammett's electronic monitoring device.

Defence lawyer Dave McFadden said the device was changed July 10 because it was malfunctioning and there have been no further alerts.

Outside the courthouse after his release Wednesday night, Pammett insisted he was innocent.

"I didn't violate the conditional sentence. It's just another set up by Peterborough police," he said.
"There's no mercy for me. The police live by our doorstep. They follow me 24 hours (a day). We're sick of all the harassment. It has to come to an end."

Pammett has been released on a $10,000 no-deposit bail and his mother is his surety. His bail conditions are more restrictive than his conditional sentence. He's under house arrest, except for two hours a day when he can be outside his home but must stay on his property.

All visitors must be pre-approved by Pammett's conditional sentence officer.

He can have no contact with any members of the Outlaws, Bandidos and Mongols motorcycle gangs.

"I won't violate it, your honour," Pammett told the court.

A date for Pammett's conditional sentence breach hearing will be set Tuesday.

The two-year less a day conditional sentence started in May after Pammett was convicted of assault in the Niagara region. Court heard Wednesday the charge was from 14 years ago.

NOTES: Bob Pammett was released from jail in March after two years for trafficking cocaine. Police raided his McNamara Rd.

house in March 2008.. . . . A hearing

will be held Monday, in a Newmarket courtroom, about the seizure of his house under the government's forfeiture laws. Pammett said Wednesday he expects to have his house back later this month.

fisaacson@peterboroughexaminer.com