Peter Ludvigson received a time-served jail sentence on the condition he attend a residential treatment facility in Penticton. (RCMP)

By Ian Holmes

property crimes

Prolific Nanaimo thief gets treatment instead of more jail

Oct 23, 2024 | 5:28 AM

NANAIMO — Well known to police and loathed by local retailers, a longtime Nanaimo criminal will attempt to clean up his act in a live-in treatment centre.

Peter Jonathan Cameron Ludvigson, 49, received a time-served jail sentence following his latest run of stealing from Nanaimo businesses in order to feed his drug addiction.

Ludvigson benefited from a joint sentence recommendation accepted by a provincial court judge on Friday, Oct. 18.

The offender was released in May 2023 after serving a two-year provincial jail sentence after pleading guilty to nearly a dozen property crimes on mid-Vancouver Island, including Nanaimo, in 2021 and 2022.

Many of the drug-fueled thefts were quite brazen, resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in losses.

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He has about 50 convictions of theft to his name, mostly from Nanaimo area retailers and surrounding communities, as well as similar crimes in Alberta.

This past Jan. 7 Ludvigson’s all too familiar pattern re-emerged when he walked into the Nanaimo Wal-Mart with several bags and went to the toy department.

Telling court his movements were tracked by in-store video surveillance, Crown counsel Jordan Hauschildt said Ludvigson concealed several packages of valuable Pokémon cards in one of the bags.

He then went to the sporting goods section, removed a child’s slide from a large box and filled it with fishing downriggers and tents.

Ludvigson paid for the slide but stole the rest of the valuables.

The offender returned to the store two days later where a manager recognized him from video surveillance.

Police were called and Ludvigson was promptly arrested.

The next month after being released from police custody with numerous new conditions applied, Ludvigson struck again.

This time he targeted Cabela’s across the highway, stealing a pair of GPS watches and two fish finders valued at around $2,500.

While Ludvigson managed to escape, a Cabela’s employee marked down the offender’s license plate.

He was also a prohibited driver at the time.

Several days later Ludvigson failed to report to his probation officer as directed, Hauschildt told court.

Ludvigson was arrested on July 27 and had been behind bars between then and his release last Friday.

Credited with serving a little over four months at Nanaimo Correctional Centre (NCC), Ludvigson was issued no further jail time, with the Crown noting a “significant change of circumstances”.

Hauschildt said Ludvigson agreed to his first formalized attempt at residential treatment to commence imminently in Penticton.

Hauschildt said given a continuous cycle of committing crimes and going to jail, it was felt Ludvigson may respond to a different kind of sentence.

“If he can work to get into recovery and recover, or work towards that, from the Crown’s perspective it does satisfy the sort of underlying public interests issues here.”

A return to jail would be almost a certainty if Ludvigson violates the terms of a newly applied six-month conditional sentence order, Hauschildt told court.

One year probation was also included as part of his sentence.

“I don’t think that he necessarily puts the public’s safety at risk, but he certainly is at a significant risk to commit further offences of the same type that he’s committed for almost 20 years now.”

Defence counsel Julia Turner told court Ludvigson had two letters of support from NCC staff and he’s benefitted from one-on-one counselling during pretrial lockup.

She said Ludvigson had been diligent with following through on his admittance to the south Okanagan treatment facility, saying he phoned the facility daily for two months to maintain his placement.

Turner noted Ludvigson wanted to receive treatment in the same community where his elderly cancer-stricken father resides.

Ludvigson also sees value in getting out of Nanaimo, she told court.

“Although the rest of his family remains here, he says he would be better served by starting fresh, living somewhere else and removing himself from temptations and possible triggers that exist on the Island,” Turner said.

Judge Tamara Hodge sided with Ludvigson going out of town for live-in treatment as opposed to potentially more time behind bars.

“It does allow for the achievement of the sentencing principles of denunciation, deterrence, rehabilitation and promoting a sense of responsibility and from my perspective it is the sentence that I will put in place,” judge Hodge said.

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Ian.holmes@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes