Robbery Lawyers in Saskatchewan

What is Robbery?

Robbery is a serious property offence that involves theft or an attempt of theft, coupled with violence or the threat of violence. It is the additional element of violence that separates this offence from that of theft.

Section 343 of the Criminal Code of Canada states the offence of robbery as follows:

Robberies, and the penalties assigned to them, range in severity. Common robbery scenarios include those that occur in banks and convenience stores. Home invasion robberies, conversely, are less common but taken the most seriously.

Any violence or threat of violence combined with stealing or an intent to steal constitutes robbery. For example, aggressive panhandling can constitute a robbery, if a threat of violence is employed.

Because robbery is a property crime involving violence or threats of violence, it has two “lesser-included offences,” assault and theft. A good defence lawyer is aware of these underlying offences and will use them when negotiating with the Crown or crafting an effective legal defence.

Investigation of Robbery Charges in Saskatchewan

An investigation of a robbery allegation in Saskatchewan is typically initiated by a complaint from an alleged victim or witness.  A witness may be someone who observed the robbery take place, even if they are not the victim (for example, a customer at a bank during a bank robbery). The police will attend the scene and request a written statement from the alleged victim and any other witnesses, then will launch an investigation.

A robbery investigation may occur quickly – in a matter of hours or days – or it could take a number of weeks. If you become a person of interest in the investigation, police may contact you to ask that you attend the police detachment to discuss the investigation. If this occurs, it is important that you contact a lawyer before speaking to police.

After the police have gathered their evidence, they will arrest you if they believe you are the perpetrator. If you are not present at the scene, police will track you down or issue a warrant for your arrest.

After you have been charged, police will provide a package with all the evidence they collected, known as the “disclosure package,” to the Crown Prosecutor. You will have the right to access this disclosure package to see the evidence against you. Once you retain one of our lawyers, we will assist you in obtaining the disclosure package, and we will review it with you to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the Crown’s case, as well as any legal defences that may be available to you.

Bail Process and Conditions for Robbery Charges in Saskatchewan

How do I get myself or a loved one out on bail for robbery charges in Saskatchewan?

If you have been charged with robbery, you will almost certainly be held for a formal bail hearing.

The bail hearing must be held within 24 hours, a period that starts from the moment of arrest or detention rather than the time when you are brought to the district office or Courthouse.

Loved ones are not able to contact you while you are detained. The police will not release any information to friends or family due to privacy laws. Your lawyer is the only person allowed to contact you. Once the police have verified your lawyer’s details, they will pass on information about your whereabouts, if requested.

Because of these difficulties, while you are held in custody, it is best to appoint a competent defence lawyer as soon as possible to manage the legal processes and communicate with loved ones. After an arrest, the police must provide you with the opportunity to call a lawyer in private and, if that happens, stop questioning you.

Once you retain one of our experienced criminal defence lawyers, we will begin working to secure your release on bail.

We will immediately do the following:

1. Call in to the district office where you are being held, or the Courthouse if you have been transported, and speak to you;
2. Contact the Prosecutor assigned to the bail hearing to start negotiating your release.
3. Order and secure a copy of the police information package that details the allegations against you in advance of the bail hearing. This allows the lawyer to make meaningful representations to the Court about why you should be released on bail.
4. Conduct either an in-person or teleconference bail hearing to secure your release.

When you attend your bail hearing, the Judge will consider the following factors:

• Is detention necessary to secure your attendance in court?
• Is detention necessary to protect the public from a substantial risk of re-offence?
• Is detention necessary in all the circumstances to maintain confidence in the administration of justice?

If you are released, you may face tight restrictions. Rest assured, we will work to not only secure your release but also to ensure the least restrictive set of bail conditions (including the minimum cash deposit).

In order for our lawyers to secure less stringent conditions, the Judge will need to be satisfied that you will attend court as required and that you pose no significant risk of harm to the public.

Our lawyers are often successful at persuading the Crown Prosecutor in charge of bail to let our clients out. If we can’t convince the Prosecutor, we can conduct a formal bail hearing and work to convince the Court. Even if you are ultimately detained, we can appeal that decision on very short notice through a bail review, which is conducted at the Court of King’s Bench of Saskatchewan.

Where can I pay for bail for robbery charges in Saskatchewan?

If you or a loved one are charged with robbery in Saskatchewan and granted bail, you may be required to provide a cash deposit to secure release. The cash deposit can be paid at any bail hearing office (courthouse) in Saskatchewan.

The Regina court registry is open from 8:30 – 4:30 (closed from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.), Monday to Friday.

The contact details of the registry office at the Regina Courthouse are as follows:

Regina Provincial Court Office
1815 Smith St.
Regina, SK S4P 2N5
(306) 787-5250

The Saskatoon court registry is open from 8:30 – 4:30, Monday to Friday.

The contact details of the registry office at the Saskatoon Courthouse are as follows:

Saskatoon Provincial Court Office
220 – 19th St. East
Saskatoon, SK S7K 0A2
(306) 933-7052

For other Court locations and sitting times across Saskatchewan please see here.

To pay your own bail, you can make a payment after your hearing, assuming you have sufficient funds with you to do so. In Saskatchewan there are a myriad of ways to pay bail, including by money order, certified cheque or debit card (in person). Some courthouses in Saskatchewan also accept electronic payments via wire transfer.  We recommend you contact the appropriate courthouse to get the wire transfer details.

How do I change my release conditions for robbery charges in Saskatchewan?

Release on bail with robbery charges may include restrictions that impact your day-to-day life.

This could include conditions to refrain from:

• Interacting with any alleged victim,
• Attending the home or place of employment of any alleged victim,
• Attending the location where the robbery took place,
• Breaking any laws,
• Using drugs or alcohol,
• Leaving your house (i.e. house arrest),
• Staying out beyond a certain time (i.e. curfew),
• Travelling to other provinces or countries, and/or
• Possessing weapons or firearms.

The Judge may also impose some additional conditions such as:

• Residing where approved,
• Reporting to probation,
• Attending counselling, and/or
• Maintaining or seeking employment.

A variety of factors will be considered when determining your precise restrictions, including:

• Your criminal history,
• Your physical and mental condition,
• The nature of the alleged robbery,
• The likelihood that you will flee,
• Your history of drug/alcohol usage,
• Whether you have stable employment,
• Whether you have stable living arrangements, and
• Whether you have ties to the community.

If you have already been released, at least for the short term, it is critical that you make arrangements to abide by your conditions until they can be changed. Breaching the terms of your release can result in further charges or a revocation of your bail, as well as a forfeiture of any cash paid to secure your release. It is important to take these conditions seriously.

Once the matter is in court, we can work with the Crown Prosecutor to alter your conditions. This includes either adding exceptions to some of the conditions or eliminating them altogether.

If your court date is far away and you cannot wait until then, we can arrange to have the matter dealt with sooner. Our first priority is always to stabilize your release conditions. That way, you will not feel pressured to plead guilty because of the restrictive terms of your release. Once the conditions are manageable and minimally intrusive to your daily routine, we can focus 100% of our attention on defending the case.

Penalties for Robbery Charges in Saskatchewan

If you are found guilty of robbery, you can expect to face significant penalties. A conviction almost always results in jail time.

The maximum sentence for a conviction for robbery is life imprisonment.

In addition, certain types of robberies carry lengthy mandatory minimum penalties:

• If any firearm is used during the robbery: 4 years’ imprisonment minimum;
• If a restricted or prohibited firearm is used during the robbery:
  • First offence: 5 years’ imprisonment minimum,
  • Second or subsequent offence: 7 years’ imprisonment minimum;
• If the robbery is committed in connection with a criminal organization:
  • First offence: 5 years’ imprisonment minimum,
  • Second or subsequent offence: 7 years’ imprisonment minimum.

Robberies are committed in a wide variety of circumstances; therefore, the Canadian courts have developed a range of sentences. For example, if a disguise is used in the commission of the robbery, the Crown usually seeks an additional 1-year sentence beyond the typical sentence range.

The general breakdown of sentence ranges for robbery in Saskatchewan are as follows:

• Street level muggings: Generally, sentences range from 12 to 18 months of jail time.
• Convenience store robberies: The starting point in Saskatchewan is 3 years of jail time, even in cases where the offender has no prior criminal record. This high starting point is to deter people from preying on businesses where employees frequently work alone and without security protection.
• Bank robberies: The starting point for bank robberies in which a note is used to commit the robbery is 4 years of jail time. A common example of a bank robbery by note is passing a handwritten note to the bank teller containing a demand for money with either veiled or explicit threats.
• Home invasion robberies: The starting point in Saskatchewan is 8 years of jail time. While this is a significant sentence, it is important to note that very specific criteria must be met in order for the 8-year starting point to apply.

In addition to the penalties above, a conviction for robbery can have wide-ranging negative consequences on your future:

• It may affect your reputation in your community or with social groups;
• Potential employers may refuse or terminate your employment if their business involves handling money or the use of valuable property;
• Your friends, family and peers may view you as unworthy of their trust;
• You may face civil, immigration, or child custody consequences; and
• You may have difficulties traveling abroad, including to the United States.

With charges as serious as robbery, it is important to have an experienced lawyer with extensive robbery defence knowledge to assist you in reviewing your case.

Even if the evidence is stacked against you, it may be possible to negotiate a resolution to avoid a lengthy jail sentence. We may be able to convince the Crown to let you plead guilty to a lesser offence for a lower sentence, or agree to a set of facts that removes your case from the more serious categories of penalties.

Rest assured, our lawyers will work hard to defend you so that you are not saddled with the most serious consequences of a criminal conviction for robbery. To learn more about potential resolutions for robbery offences, please visit our FAQ on resolutions and other sentencing options.

Defending Robbery Charges in Saskatchewan

What are the best defences to robbery charges in Saskatchewan?

Because of the severity of potential penalties for a conviction for robbery, it is important that you take your defence of these charges seriously. In robbery cases, the defences that may be available to you will depend on the facts of your case.

Our starting point is always a careful review of all the police evidence and of your version of events. If you have a defence, we will pursue it to the fullest extent.

In general, the best defences for robbery charges are:

• Factual Innocence: This is usually the strongest defence because the facts and the evidence do not support you being there, causing the robbery, or other basic elements of the offence. This could include:
  • Identity: In some circumstances where the offence was not recorded by surveillance footage, the footage is of poor quality, or the witnesses did not obtain a good description of the perpetrator, you may be able to raise an identity defence. For example, authorities could have made a mistake in identifying you as the perpetrator based on the poor quality of the footage or a generic description by witnesses. In order to effectively raise this defence, you may need corroborative evidence, such as an alibi to where you were at the time of the offence.
  • No intent: In order to be convicted of robbery, the Crown must prove that you specifically intended to commit robbery. Intoxication or other factors that impaired your state of mind at the time of the alleged robbery may raise a defence that you did not intend to commit a robbery. However, even if the Court finds that you did not have the requisite intent to commit robbery, it may be possible in some cases for the Court to still find you guilty of one of the “lesser-included offences,” such as assault or theft.
  • No actus reus: The actus reus of an offence refers to the actions that make up the offence. Robbery requires both an element of violence or threats of violence, and stealing or intent to steal. Additionally, those two elements must be connected. Therefore, if one of those elements is not present, or if there is no nexus between the two, the Crown cannot prove that a robbery took place. For example, if you assault someone to take back property that legally belongs to you, the Crown would be unable to establish the element of stealing or intent to steal. However, even if the Crown cannot establish one of the elements of robbery, the Court may still be able to convict you for one of the “lesser-included offences” of assault or theft, if one of those offences can be established.
• Violation of Constitutional Rights: The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms sets out your rights before and after your arrest. If the police fail to abide by these rights, it could aid in your defence.

It is important to remember that while the Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed the offence, you may bear some responsibility in raising certain defences at trial.

The availability and strength of any defence depends entirely on the specific facts of your case. Our lawyers have significant experience assessing potential defences in robbery cases, as well as presenting any and all available defences to the Court at trial. Even if you believe you will be found guilty, it is important that you obtain a legal opinion about the defences that may be available to you.

How can I help defend robbery charges in Saskatchewan?

If you have been charged with robbery in Saskatchewan, the following can help your lawyer build a strong defence:

• Provide your lawyer with a statement about what happened;
• Collect and maintain all documents and records about the event;
• Gather a list of witnesses that may support your version of events; and
• Log any relevant texts, emails, phone calls or photographic evidence.

As soon as you are released on bail, you should start to gather information that may be of use to your lawyer. If you are uncertain what information may be relevant, contact one of our lawyers immediately to create a plan of action.

If you are truly proactive about the matter, consider doing the following:

• Secure proof of employment;
• Secure reference letters;
• Enroll in counselling (anger management/substance abuse/parenting);
• Secure a record of prescriptions; and
• Secure a record of any mental health conditions you suffer from.

These steps can be very helpful for building an effective defence (or convincing the Prosecutor to drop the charges altogether).

What can a lawyer do to help me defend against robbery charges in Saskatchewan?

As we start preparing your defence by examining police actions and the evidence against you, there are certain defence strategies that can be used to aid your cause, including:

• Assembling documents, photographs, texts, etc. that contradict the allegation and support your defence;
• Gathering evidence from witnesses that support your version of events;
• Identifying mistakes in the actions of the police, such as Charter breaches;
• Uncovering administrative/systemic errors, such as “Jordan delay,” non-disclosure, lost or destroyed evidence, etc.; and
• Finding weaknesses or “holes” in the Crown’s case that may make it difficult or Impossible for them to establish the elements of the offence.

What’s Next?

Robbery charges are complex, fact-specific, and can have serious consequences on your future.

We have tried our best to provide a general outline of what you can expect if you find yourself in this situation, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

To learn more about how we can help, please contact our team of Robbery Lawyers. We will conduct a thorough review of your situation and tailor a precise strategy that targets your successful defence.