A man who was ticketed by police officers after dropping off food items that had been donated at a Santa Claus parade has had his fines reduced from $1,005 to $150.
Mark Hoffman was charged with six traffic offences in December 2017, on the day of a parade in New Hamburg, Ont., after his truck failed a police inspection.
He said police officers he had seen along the parade route met him at the donation drop-off site, where they inspected his truck and issued him six tickets.
The offences, which carried total fines of more than $1,000, included failure to surrender an inspection report and failure to surrender an insurance card.
Police defended the charges, saying they were concerned the vehicle was unsafe.
"We would hate to be on the other side of this conversation that this vehicle was deemed unsafe and caused a collision that ended in the death of an individual,” Waterloo Regional Police Insp. Mike Haffner told CTV Kitchener last year.
Hoffman appeared in court Tuesday, where he pleaded guilty to failing to display an inspection certificate and failing to surrender an insurance card. The other four charges were dropped.
Speaking to CTV Kitchener, Hoffman said he had let the inspection certificate expire because he was no longer using the truck for business purposes, and didn’t have the vehicle’s insurance card with him at the time of the parade.
“It was a trivial matter. It shouldn’t have been brought before the courts but it was, so this was the best resolution,” he said.
A longtime volunteer at the New Hamburg parade, Hoffman took part in this year’s edition as well – albeit with a different truck.
This year, he collected more than 700 pounds of food and almost $500 to help provide hundreds of meals to neighbours in need.
Trisha Robinson, director of the community centre where the food bank is located, said she is grateful that Hoffman didn’t let the incident stop him.
“It wouldn't be Christmas without Mark and his family and the food bank truck,” she said.
