A 32-year-old man has been jailed for 30 months after he forgot about his loaded handgun in a Boston Pizza in Richmond.

Sepehr Motevalli was found guilty last October of possessing a loaded Ruger 9 mm handgun at the restaurant in August, 2015.

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Court documents published earlier this week reveal how Motevalli may have been acting as a bodyguard for someone connected to Richmond’s money-laundering scandal.

Motevalli walked into the restaurant – it’s not clear which of the two Richmond Boston Pizzas (No. 3 and Ackroyd roads or Steveston Highway and No. 5 Road) - with a satchel containing the firearm.

According to the sentencing documents, Motevalli was in the company of a woman and her mother, as well as some young children, at the time.

Upon leaving the restaurant, however, Motevalli mistakenly left behind the bag - which only contained the gun, which was loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition - on the arm of a chair.

Evidence during the trial indicated that one of the people Motevalli was with was related to a man being investigated by the RCMP as part of the ongoing money-laundering scandal.

In his sentencing, however, B.C. Supreme Court Justice George Macintosh said that it was “...unclear as to what Mr. Motevalli was doing there with the loaded gun.

“The younger of the two women he was with was described in the evidence as the wife of a man the RCMP were investigating for possible money-laundering crimes.

“Part of the identification evidence against Mr. Motevalli at his trial was extensive surveillance evidence showing Mr. Motevalli.

“That evidence was obtained as part of the RCMP's investigation of that other man for money laundering.

“Mr. Motevalli did not testify at his trial, or in the sentencing hearing, and did not share with the probation officer who prepared the pre-sentence report any circumstances about how or why he obtained the gun, or why he had it with him, fully loaded, on August 21, 2015.

“The defence invited me to conclude he was acting as a body guard on August 21, 2015, although that was not established by any evidence beyond what is set out above.”

Motevalli’s lawyer said during proceedings that his client had possession of the firearm “for the purpose of self-defence.”

However, the judge concluded that “the possession of a loaded weapon in these circumstances can only be to threaten or inflict harm or death…”

Motevalli, who was born in Iran and came to Vancouver with his family in 1998, had no prior criminal record.