An attempt to spice up his life may have been why a Waterloo man turned to cocaine, a judge said Wednesday.
Peter Whitby was sentenced to 21 months in jail after being found guilty of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking it.
Justice John Lynch, who delivered the sentence, described Whitby as “an ordinary guy" who became a small-time player in the drug trade.
“Perhaps he saw this as excitement in … his ordinary life,” he said.
Whitby was arrested in 2015, following a police raid of his home that netted multiple batches of cocaine, with a total estimated value of about $10,000.
Whitby admitted that he had distributed cocaine to his coworkers at BlackBerry, where he worked as a senior operations manager, but denied that the cocaine found in his house was his. He said it belonged to his drug dealer, who he had let stay at his home.
Before the sentencing hearing ended, the judge had a few kinder words for Whitby.
“You have a lot of potential,” Lynch said.
“I hope you come out of this unscathed.”
