A former Wood Buffalo RCMP drug dog handler convicted of breach of trust managed to avoid jail time — again — after prosecutors appealed a judge’s decision allowing him to serve his sentence on house arrest.

Kyle Gordon Harrison pleaded guilty to two counts of breach of trust by a public officer in September 2017 after admitting to accessing a confidential police database — including for a friend tied to the illegal drug trade.

The Crown argued the provincial court judge who heard the case, J.K. Wheatley, was wrong to sentence Harrison to house arrest. Instead, Harrison should serve jail time due to the severity of the offence.

But in a written judgment released Thursday, the Alberta Court of Appeal found the sentence was appropriate.

"The sentencing judge made no errors in principle and the sentence imposed is not demonstrably unfit," Justice J.A. Costigan wrote. "The appeal is dismissed."

During sentencing, court heard Harrison was serving as a general duty officer in Surrey, B.C., when he provided confidential information to a friend at the request of a younger brother involved in the drug trade.

Harrison searched the man’s name, found he was under surveillance and alerted the brother. Crown prosecutor James Stewart said the former Mountie’s actions jeopardized a confidential informant and constituted an "egregious" breach of public trust.

In 2014, Harrison was a drug dog handler at the Wood Buffalo RCMP detachment in Fort McMurray and became the subject of an investigation by the B.C. RCMP’s Anti-Corruption Unit.

The unit believed Harrison had improperly accessed confidential police information containing sensitive information on millions of Canadians, court heard. They launched a sting to determine whether Harrison would use his position to help a fictitious criminal organization import cocaine into Canada from the United States.

An undercover officer approached Harrison in June 2014 while the Mountie was jogging with his police dog in a Fort McMurray park. The two established a relationship over a number of months that included dinners and family trips to B.C. The undercover officer also paid Harrison money for odd jobs for his fictitious transportation company.

The undercover officer, who had alluded to a past as a marijuana producer, began to ask Harrison to run checks on fictitious employees. The undercover officer eventually told Harrison he ran a side business importing cocaine from the U.S.

He asked for a background check on a “mule.” Harrison ran the check, accepting $500. In total, he committed three breaches of trust in Fort McMurray in addition to the Surrey incident, court heard.

Harrison later realized what he did was wrong and alerted border agents and the local RCMP drug investigator about the man who was an undercover officer. He handed over $1,200 he received from the information checks to police, although it was not the original funds.

The Crown argued Harrison should serve 24 to 30 months in jail to send a message to other public employees about corruption.

The defence argued for two years less a day on house arrest, subject to "stringent" conditions.

The defence relied on a psychologist’s report that found Harrison was a "normal person" who "had the idea that he had to help people all the time" out of a "misguided sense of friendship."

The appeal court found the sentencing judge made no errors, and agreed that house arrest served to deter other potential offenders.

"The conditions imposed in this case were very onerous, requiring house arrest for 24 months," the appeal court wrote. "The sentencing judge did not err by failing to properly address general deterrence and denunciation."

Harrison had resigned from the RCMP by the time of his sentencing.

jwakefield@postmedia.com