$15-million man? A glimpse at time & money spent dealing with prolific offenders in Canada’s criminal justice system
A timeline of appearances on one case of one habitual offender in the Eastern Fraser Valley, and a crudely estimated price tag taxpayers foot
For anyone who pays attention to crime reporting in their community and who might be frustrated by how much is overlooked, ignored, forgotten, never reported on at all, here’s a timeline of a not particularly unusual criminal file as it travels through British Columbia provincial court system.
It’s not a particularly unusual one, but the accused is not average in that he is one of the most prolific offenders in Chilliwack. Keeping track of the overlapping files he is charged with in between appearances on the index offence, his frequent breaches of release orders, and his court date no-shows prompting warrants for his arrest makes it particularly time-consuming and tedious for all involved.
Without intending to pick on Brian Robert Stephan specifically too much, he's a good example of an offender who's been giving a middle finger to the criminal justice system in the Eastern Fraser Valley – figuratively and, as seen in the photo above, literally – since he became an adult. Probably long before, but youth records are sealed.
Born in 1985, Stephan’s adult criminal offending in the provincial court system in B.C. began in 2005, according to the not-comprehensive court services online site. In a near-impossible criminal trajectory to keep track of, Stephan put icing on his crime cake in April 2021 when he, allegedly, kicked off a two-week crime spree, the charges for which are still wending their way through court.
On this file, number 73643, Stephan faces 12 charges. He is charged with stealing a vehicle in Popkum on April 17, 2021. Then the next day, break-and-enters in both Popkum and Vancouver, one driving while disqualified charge in Popkum, and two counts of possession of stolen property in Mission. Then, not done yet, allegedly, on May 5 he is charged with identity theft and five firearms offences. That's a dozen charges in total on this one file.
A long, slow process
"I don’t know why they didn’t do court the other day and they push it back and back," a friend said to me about a different court case she was asking me about that she is following in Abbotsford. "Seems like a lot of work, what’s the point?"
"That is our system," I replied in part. "Slow. Most appearances are just procedural fiddling. Does he have a lawyer? Has Crown disclosed particulars of the case to him, etc."
"How annoying," she replied. Indeed, but details need to be addressed, procedures need to be followed, people accused of crimes need to be treated fairly, with respect, in adherence with criminal code provisions all under the umbrella of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Back to Brian Stephan. As of Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, he has had 59 appearances on this file: 23 were put on the court list as applications to revoke his bail that were adjourned for reasons unclear; 13 were scheduled as bail hearings, but most did not address bail; there were at least six non-appearances; and three times warrants were issued for his arrest for violating court-ordered conditions.
In between all that, Stephan was released on bail three times, all of which were in 2024: Feb. 29, May 6, and Oct. 18. He is alleged to have breached conditions of the final release eight times in summer 2025, and he was finally detained in custody by Judge Peter Whyte on Sept. 19, 2025.
Take a look at this timeline below, scroll through it quickly, and imagine that even if each appearance only lasted a couple of minutes (many indeed would have), how much time and money is expended to deal with this file?
At every single appearance in a provincial courtroom there are a minimum of four government employees in the room, which does not count all the human paid staff members behind the scenes. Whenever an accused or his or her lawyer are scheduled in court in person or via video, as is much more common now, there is a judge, a public prosecutor (Crown counsel), at least one sheriff, and at least one court clerk. The accused's counsel is also potentially being paid for by legal aid if he or she can’t afford a lawyer.
The bullet point entries on this list of dates refer to charges or court appearances not related to this file number 73643 and its 12 charges over three dates.
April 17, 2021 - Brian Robert Stephan, born 1985, is charged with stealing a vehicle in Popkum. Court file number 73643.
April 18, 2021 - For alleged activities this day, Stephan is charged with break and enter in both Popkum and Vancouver, driving while disqualified (under the criminal code) in Popkum, and two counts of possession of stolen property in Mission, also on file 73643.
• May 4, 2021 - On a separate file on this date in Mission, he is charged and later convicted of possession of stolen property under $5,000, a driving prohibition, and a breach of a release.
May 5, 2021 - Back to the index offence from Popkum, Vancouver, and Mission, Stephan is also charged with identity theft and five firearms charges on this date in Mission. File 73643, contains 12 criminal charges in total against Stephan and constitutes the “index” offence, a term used later on this list.
• May 5, 2021 - On that same day, he is charged and later convicted of motor vehicle theft in Mission, and wilfully resisting arrest in Chilliwack. A warrant is issued for his arrest on this day on the main offences. It's unclear according to public information why this is a new criminal file and the other allegations from May 5 are included on file 73643.
• Sept. 3, 2021 - warrant issued for his arrest on a different file.
• Oct. 29, 2021- he is charged, and late convicted, of driving while disqualified on this day.
•Dec. 15, 2021 - he is charged, and later convicted, of wilfully resisting arrest and a breach of court-ordered release conditions in Chilliwack.
•March 12, 2022 - he’s convicted of a breach from this day.
• Jan 24, 2023 - he’s convicted of a breach connected to a Kamloops file.
April 11, 2023 - This is the date he first appears and having now been charged with the 12 counts from Popkum, Vancouver, and Mission on file 73643.
May 16, 2023 - In court to get particulars of the case from Crown (PAR).
June 6, 2023 - for particulars (PAR)
June 23, 2023 - PAR
• June 27, 2023 - convicted of breach connected to a different Kamloops file.
July 21, 2023 - PAR
Aug. 8, 2023 - scheduled for an application to revoke his bail (ARB) on file 73463. (It might have already been revoked on other files.)
Aug. 21, 2023 - ARB
Aug. 28, 2023 - ARB
Sept. 12, 2023 - ARB
Sept. 26, 2023 - ARB
Oct. 10, 2023 - ARB
Oct. 16, 2023 - ARB
Oct. 23, 2023 - ARB
Oct. 24, 2023 - ARB
Nov. 1, 2023 - ARB
Nov. 7, 2023 - ARB
Nov. 28, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 1, 2023 - to fix a future appearance date (FXD).
Dec. 5, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 7, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 11, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 18, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 21, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 27, 2023 - ARB
Dec. 28, 2023 - judicial interim release, a bail hearing (JIR).
Dec. 29, 2023 - ARB
Jan. 30, 2024 - planned arraignment (AHR) but a warrant is issued, which suggests he did not show up for court.
Feb. 29, 2024 - a bail hearing is held and he is released on $1,000 bail by Judge Daniel Loucks
March 8, 2024 - FXD
March 15, - scheduled for an application for a warrant (APW) to be issued, which is the appearance reason given when an accused did not show up the previous date.
April 12, 2024 - FXD
April 19, 2024 - APW. He didn’t show up again on that previous date but because no warrant was issued, that implies he or his lawyer did show up on this day.
April 30, 2024 - to consult legal counsel (CLC)
May 6, 2024 - scheduled for CLC again but, you guessed it, he didn’t show up so this is the second time a warrant is issued for his arrest.
• June 7, 2024 - he is convicted for a breach on a different Chilliwack file.
Sept. 30, 2024 - JIR
Oct. 2, 2024 - JIR
Oct. 4, 2024 - JIR
Oct. 8, 2024 - JIR
Oct. 11, 2024 - JIR
Oct. 18, 2024 - JIR, after those above dates didn’t happen for whatever reason, a second bail hearing is held and he is again released, this time on $2,000 bail by Judge Andrea Brownstone.
Oct. 22, 2024 - FXD
Nov. 1, 2024 - APW (again, didn’t show up to previous date)
Nov. 15, 2024 - AHR
Nov. 22, 2024 - AHR
Dec. 13, 2024 - AHR
Dec. 17, 2024 - FXD
Jan. 10, 2025 - scheduled to confirm trial date (CTD) but no-show, third warrant issued on this file.
Jan. 11, 2025 - JIR
Jan. 13, 2025 - a third bail hearing (JIR) is held and he is again released on $2,000 bail, this time by Judge Gurmail Gill (a senior provincial judge).
Jan. 17, 2025 - FXD
Feb. 20, 2025 - scheduled to be a pre-trial conference (PTC).
Feb. 21, 2025 - CTD
March 25, 2025 - FXD
April 1, 2025 - CTD
June 5, 2025 - This is the day he is alleged to have breached conditions of his release on the main file. Actually, he’s charged with two breaches on this day in addition to breaches listed on the four following dates (eight in total).
June 10, 2025 - Breach allegation.
July 28, 2025 - Two breach allegations.
July 30, 2025 - Breach allegation.
Aug. 21, 2025 - Two breach allegations.
• Sept. 3, 2025 - He is charged with willfully resisting a peace officer, an allegation from this day creating a whole new file. This presumably happened as he was being arrested for the above breaches. He is scheduled to be arraigned on this new file on Oct. 27, 2025.
Sept. 3, 2025 - JIR on the eight breaches & ARB on the index offence.
Sept. 17, 2025 - JIR on the eight breaches & ARB on the index offence.
Sept. 19, 2025, 9:30 a.m. - JIR on the eight breaches & ARB on the index offence.
Sept. 19, 2025, 2 p.m. - The bail hearing is finally held connected to the eight breach charges and the application to revoke his bail is heard on the index offence, an application that is made because of the breaches. This seems contradictory but is how the appearances are listed for logical record-keeping reasons, if not logical real-world ones. And, hold for applause, Stephan is denied bail and/or his bail is revoked. His detention is ordered by Judge Peter Whyte.
Sept. 29, 2025 - PAR on eight breaches
Oct. 14, 2025 - PAR on eight breaches
And now we are up to date. Stephan remains in custody as of Oct. 22, 2025, presumably at Surrey Pretrial Centre with his two next court dates below, the breaches being dealt with separately from the index offence.
Oct. 27, 2025 - Scheduled for arraignment on the eight breaches.
Dec. 10, 11, 12, 2025 - Three-day trial is scheduled on the index offences.
Tens of millions per prolific offender
This massive and seemingly ridiculous silly list of court appearance dates is arguably why so few journalists cover what goes on in the criminal justice system, particularly with middling or lower-level crimes such as most of Stephan’s convictions.
That’s a glimpse at the time spent on just one criminal file by one offender, sprinkled in and amongst which are several other files he is charged on. So what is the financial cost? That’s impossible to accurately calculate but we can make some ballpark estimates. A somewhat dated study on how much crime costs per offender over time in Ontario found that “high-rate offenders” averaged $12 million to $17 million each in cost over the period studied.
That cost includes criminal justice and correctional, but also costs to victims, which would not all be taxpayer dollars. For “medium-rate” offenders, approximately $8 million each. For “low-rate,” approximately $3.5 million each.
The study sample comprised 386 high-risk male offenders who had been sentenced between 1986 and 1997 as juvenile offenders to one of two open custody facilities in Toronto, operating within the scope of the children's mental health system. Offenders were, on average, 17.7 years at the time of admission into the facility, and the average sentence length was 122.6 days.
The follow-up period went to 2007 with an average follow-up period time of 16.4 years, the average age at the end being 32. For the purposes of study uniformity, the follow-up period was standardized to 15 years.
Prolific or high-rate offenders caused a disproportionate cost on the system, as would be expected. Of the sample size, 8.3 per cent were considered “high rate” but they caused 20 per cent of the cost.
There are a number of limitations of this study: the data is dated; many costs are incalculable; the definition of “prolific offender” is fuzzy. Suffice it to say, someone such as Stephan will have cost taxpayers much more than $10 million over the course of his criminal career, and if these numbers are to be believed, closer to $15 million is more likely.
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Paul J. Henderson
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