Man who set fire as distraction to shoplift in Vancouver grocery given conditional sentence

A man who admitted to setting a fire inside the only full-service grocery store in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside earlier this year has received a two-year conditional sentence followed by two years of probation.

Victor Atkinson, 50, was originally charged with arson to inhabited property and theft in the March 30 fire at Nesters Market but pleaded guilty in June to the lesser charge of arson to property.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday, the court heard Atkinson, who was captured on surveillance and quickly identified by store management and police immediately after the fire, confessed to the crime.

Following his arrest at the nearby Gastown Hotel SRO, Atkinson told police he started the fire at Nesters in the Woodward’s building as a distraction tactic so he could continue shoplifting, which he does to support his drug use.

While acknowledging his guilty plea saved court time and considerable Crown and police resources, prosecutors said Atkinson posed an incredible danger to everyone else – just so he could shoplift.

In seeking a two-year jail sentence, prosecutor Tyler Maclean said Nesters Market was packed, with hundreds more people inside the apartments above it, and that the fire caused significant damage to the store and the community.

“The danger posed to anyone in the area was extreme and could have resulted in catastrophic loss of life,” Maclean told the court.

Also aggravating, said the Crown, are the 14 property crime offences on Atkinson’s record – almost all for shoplifting.

“By his own admission, he’s a serial shoplifter?” asked B.C. provincial court Judge David St. Pierre.

“Yes,” Maclean replied, “Mr. Atkinson isn’t shy about the fact he shoplifts to support his lifestyle.”

Defence counsel told the court his client had no malicious intent in his spontaneous decision to light a fire near a stack of toilet paper, and thought it would just “create some smoke.”

“It was a total one-off, it was not Mr. Atkinson’s intention whatsoever to do that,” lawyer Jordan Allingham told Global News. “It’s a really unfortunate series of events but it’s very unlikely that we’ll see Mr. Atkinson back before the courts with any sort of similar type of offending.”

Allingham said the biggest risk factor is his client’s substance misuse.

“His record is a product of shoplifting to support his addiction,” Allingham told the sentencing hearing.