Alleged firearm ‘chop shop’ owner acquitted

Nov 25, 2015 | 11:14 AM

KAMLOOPS — A man accused of running a firearm ‘chop shop’ out of his Westsyde mobile home has been acquitted of a series of weapons charges due to errors on the part of Kamloops RCMP.

Charles Patrick was arrested in December 2013 after a traffic stop, with police saying they found his with a loaded, sawed-off shotgun inside his jacket.

RCMP alleged a subsequent raid of his home found several other weapons, some that were in various states of modification.

In issuing her acquittal decision this morning, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hope Hyslop said the search in the traffic stop breached Patrick’s rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

Hyslop also said the warrant obtained to allow police to raid Patrick’s home was incomplete.

Patrick is the former husband of Maxine Patrick, the woman convicted in 2006 of defrauding the Kamloops Blazers out of more than one-million dollars.