MANDEL: 'Incorrigible' speeding menace has day parole yanked for third time
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Third time wasn’t the charm for serial speedster Adam Simeunovich.
The “incorrigible” 47-year-old Oshawa recidivist has just had his third chance at day parole revoked — to the shock of absolutely no one. Less than two weeks after being released in March to a halfway house, police believe the menace under a lifetime driving ban was behind the wheel of his father’s pickup and tried to evade them at a high rate of speed — an accusation he “vehemently denied” to parole officials
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The parole board didn’t believe him — and found he’s “re-entered” his offence cycle. Though it sure doesn’t look like he ever left it despite being given generous chance after chance during previous hearings.
Simeunovich was originally sentenced to 10 years for causing a horrific crash in 2017 while speeding and running red lights through downtown Whitby like a “deranged maniac,” T-boning a car and leaving a young father with broken ribs, a shattered pelvis and brain trauma.
He then fled on foot only to be arrested with the help of the canine unit.
With his criminal record of more than 50 driving-related convictions — 15 for driving while disqualified — and a lifetime driving prohibition, Justice Peter West described Simeunovich as “being completely incorrigible” and gave him the unusually stiff sentence.
In September 2020, just two years later, he was released on day parole only to have it suspended within two months when he was charged again for driving while prohibited. The board officially revoked his release in March 2021.
After a successful appeal, Simeunovich was paroled again in September 2021. Two months later, he was under arrest again for driving while disqualified, failing to comply with parole and possession of a forged driver’s licence. His day parole was officially revoked in December 2022 and he was convicted of five counts of operation while prohibited and sentenced to a whopping eight years and five months consecutive to the sentence he was already serving.
Yet somehow, this past January, a different parole board panel decided to give Simeunovich another shot at freedom — over the objections of his parole officer and the local police — and released him in March to a halfway house with conditions that he “not operate a motor or electric vehicle of any kind.“
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Well, we’ve seen how well that worked out just 12 days later.
Simeunovich initially claimed he couldn’t be the one driving because he was with his employer at the time. When his boss didn’t back up his timeline, he continued to offer multiple other reasons why it wasn’t him, including that the cops had taken down the wrong licence plate.
He was then shown video that confirmed it was his dad’s truck — his father was out of town and his son was one of only two people who had access to it and the only one with a criminal history of driving like a maniac: “The video showed the vehicle refusing to stop for police, taking off at a high speed, driving onto the shoulder of the highway and narrowly avoiding a dangerous collision with another vehicle,” the parole decision states.
Simeunovich claimed to be a changed man who wouldn’t have violated his lifetime driving ban again. “You stated that you had come to accept that you could not drive, that you had matured, that you were now much more aware of previous problematic thought processes and how to challenge them,” the board member wrote.
“None of your submissions convince the Board that you could not have been in the vehicle at the time, and it is concerned about the number and nature of the differing explanations you have provided to your CMT (case management team) and others since your suspension,” the decision says.
“Your current presented theory is that it was your friend driving the vehicle, although as CSC (Correctional Service of Canada) today pointed out, he has no criminal record or concerning driving history.”
No halfway house in the area wants him and there’s “very strong opposition” from the police to lifting his day parole suspension. The board concluded Simeunovich presents “an undue risk to society if released” and his day parole was revoked yet again.
Making our streets safer — at least for now.
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