'Prolific offender' with Canada-wide driving ban charged after chase involving spike belt, police dogs

Lorne Joseph Guilbault is shown in a provided image.

A man with a history of vehicle-related allegations and a country-wide driving ban was taken into custody after fleeing from police last month.

In a news release issued more than a month after the alleged offences, Mounties in Surrey, B.C. announced charges against a driver accused of failing to stop for police.

The officers alleged that the man they took into custody on Nov. 19 had not only failed to pull over for them, but for police in two other municipalities in recent days.

They said they tried to pull him over, noting the vehicle cited in police reports elsewhere, but again, the driver refused to pull over.

According to the RCMP, the agency's Air 1 helicopter was brought in to track the driver from the air, allowing police to monitor his location.

The driver left Surrey, officers said, but his vehicle came to a stop in Langley when police used a spike belt. The strips of spikes are used to stop a vehicle by puncturing the tires with metal barbs.

But the driver didn't give up, the RCMP said.

Officers claim the man hopped out of the vehicle and ran off, but that he was brought into custody with help from a police dog team and the Uniform Gang Enforcement Team.

Since that time, Lorne Guilbault has been charged with failure to stop for police, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and driving while prohibited, police said this week.

The 41-year-old has also been charged with three counts of failure to comply with probation.

Officers called Guilbault a "prolific offender." 

A man with the same name and age was the subject of an advisory from police in Abbotsford last summer, when it was alleged he fled the scene of a traffic stop after intentionally ramming into a police car and hitting another vehicle nearby.

According to police at the time, he narrowly missed striking several bystanders, including children.

Guilbault was wanted in 2020 on several outstanding warrants, including driving while prohibited, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, breach of probation, assault with a weapon and failing to stop for police. 

The Abbotsford Police Department said he'd been released on bail for a similar incident, and has several criminal convictions including theft over $5,000, break and enter, possession of stolen mail, driving while impaired and the possession of a substance for the purpose of trafficking.

Online court records dating back to 2003 show several court appearances listed under the name Lorne Guilbault.

His next appearance is scheduled on Jan. 7 in Surrey Provincial Court.