CORNWALL – An American traveller through Cornwall’s port of entry in 2020 was sentenced to time served after guns were found in the back of his truck.
Michael Banks, 33, of Albany, N.Y. was sentenced in November 2021.
Court heard that Banks had got on the wrong road while coming to Akwesasne to visit a friend and was pulled into the CBSA inspection area rather than being turned around and sent back to the states, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
The border had been closed to non-essential traffic and Judge Franco Giamberardino was surprised the border agents didn’t turn Banks back, the paper reported.
The judge also noted the gun was not a criminal weapon and was a legally registered firearm in the United States. Banks is a former collegiate athlete and a teacher’s assistant who does youth outreach and strategies for gang intervention.
Giamberardino sentenced Banks to the time he served at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Center instead of the five years the Crown had been seeking.