Canadian deported 7 times sent to federal prison for crossing border illegally again

BANGOR, Maine — A Canadian man who has been deported from the United States seven times since 1978 was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to nearly four years in federal prison for illegal re-entry into the country.

Ian Owen Sharpe, 59, of Victoria, British Columbia was arrested on Feb. 17 after he walked the previous evening across a bridge into Calais, according to the prosecution’s version of events to which he pleaded guilty in July.

Sharpe told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in February that his name was Paul Jay Say and that he had no identification. He gave officials a piece of paper on which handwritten information included a date and place of birth, Social Security number and phone numbers.

Say’s true identity was discovered when officers processed his fingerprints, according to court documents. When confronted with his true identity, Sharpe “took his boots off and took out the inner felt soles which revealed, in plastic bags and taped to the bottom of the felt soles, Sharpe’s Canadian identification” and his birth certificate, court documents said.

Information about how Sharpe got from his home in Victoria to the Maritimes section of Canada and why he was on foot is not included in court documents.

In addition to three years and nine months in prison, U.S. District Judge John Woodcock sentenced Sharpe to three years of supervised release.
The nine months the Canadian has been held without bail will be credited to his sentence.

Sharpe is expected to be deported again once he completes his prison term.

He had faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.