A man who twice failed to do community service work as part of conditional discharges didn’t get another chance in Vancouver Provincial Court April 17.
Judge John Milne said it was not in the public interest to give Serhat Seyhoglu a third chance when he’d not complied with two earlier orders to do 120 hours of community service work.
“I’m not going to give you another opportunity to do this,” Milne said. “I find it would be contrary to the public interest. You have not completed any hours.”
He put Seyhoglu on probation, saying the 120 hours had to be done by July 2025.
The charge, sworn Dec. 8 2020, said Seyhoglu failed to comply with a Feb. 28, 2020 probation order to perform the hours.
Crown prosecutor Harpreet Parmar told Milne probation officers had been trying to contact Seyhoglu to find out if he had completed the hours. He told them he was in Turkey with family and would provide proof of completion.
Defence lawyer Danny Markovitz told Milne his client would complete the hours and requested a conditional discharge.
Milne said Seyhoglu was given such discharges in 2017 and in 2018.
“He’s had prior conditional discharges,” Milne said. “Now, he’s been charged a third time.”
“He’s completed none of the original community service work that was imposed in 2017,” the judge said.
Reality TV raid
It’s almost a decade since Seyhoglu, president of BSSM Construction Ltd., was in the same provincial courthouse on charges of breaching Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by employing two foreign nationals without proper authorization.
Several of his employees were arrested, and some later deported, when officials raided a Vancouver construction site where Seyhoglu was a subcontractor.
The raid was captured on Border Security: Canada’s Front Line, a reality television show created with Canada Border Service Agency’s blessing to film staff and officers on the job.
