A judge has rejected the appeal of a man who said he shouldn’t have to pay restitution in addition to serving jail time for assaulting a Nakusp senior.
In 2023, Csaba Beres was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on probation for 15 months for an assault that took place on March 24, 2022.
According to the court judgement, the victim hired Beres to install some car seats in a vehicle and they got into a dispute over payment. Beres then broke the victim’s windshield with his fist. The victim drove to the Nakusp RCMP detachment. Beres followed and hit him in the face, knocking him down. He then kicked the 72-year-old several times while he lay on the ground, and stomped on his cell phone.
At sentencing, a judge waived a victim surcharge because Beres was unable to pay, but the Crown sought restitution of $1,392 to cover the $300 deductible of the windshield replacement and cost of a new phone. The judge agreed.
Beres, however, appealed that part of the sentence, arguing the trial judge failed to consider jail time as a factor in whether to order restitution. He also argued the judge should have considered that the crime was not theft or breach of trust.
BC Supreme Court Justice Lindsay Lyster, however, ruled this month that it was reasonable to order restitution since Beres was given a year to pay following his jail time and the amount involved was modest.
She said the victim’s vulnerability was also a factor. The sentencing judge described the assault as an “explosion of aggression on a … senior citizen as he lay helpless on the ground by kicking him in the body and face repeatedly [that] amount to senseless and out of control vicious acts of violence.”
In an impact statement, the victim said that he was terrified by the incident and lost business data, work contacts, information, and pictures when his phone was damaged.
The judge concluded the restitution order was fit and dismissed the appeal.
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