A Laurentian University mechanical engineering student from Saudi Arabia avoided deportation after getting into more trouble with the law.

That was because on March 19, 2016, just 17 days after Abdulkriem Alobaid had received a conditional discharge, he was found by a Greater Sudbury Police officer to be breaching a curfew. The curfew was part of his probation order connected to his discharge.

In his most recent brush with the law, Alobaid, 24, pleaded guilty to breach of probation.

"I suppose one might question the granting of a conditional discharge for the second time is an appropriate sentence in view of the fact you were put on probation on March 2 and on March 19, you breached that probation order," Ontario Court Justice Robert Villeneuve said.

"You are a young man. You are here in the country studying. You are completing a mechanical engineering degree at Laurentian University … A criminal record may impair your ability to continue to study in this country."

However, Villeneuve also told Alobaid that when he was convicted on March 2, 2016, of failing to comply with conditions of an undertaking, he then either had no intention of changing his behaviour "or you didn’t understand what the condition was."

Despite that, Villeneuve said he was satisfied that granting a second conditional discharge was not contrary to the public interest.

The six-month conditional discharge had been suggested in a joint sentencing submission by defence lawyer Robert Beckett and assistant Crown attorney Leonard Kim.

Alobaid had also made a $500 donation to a registered charity before attending court.

A conditional discharge does not result in a criminal record, providing the person stays out of trouble during its length.

On March 2, 2016, Alobaid pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a condition and two Highway Traffic Act offences.

He was issued a conditional discharge, 18 months’ probation and fined a total of $340.

The court heard that about 5 a.m. March 19, a Greater Sudbury Police officer on patrol stopped a BMW being driven on Ste. Anne’s Road. The officer noticed that the vehicle had an odour of marijuana inside.

Alobaid, who was a passenger, was found to be on an 18-month probation order that included an overnight curfew. He was charged with breach of probation.

Defence lawyer Robert Beckett said Alobaid had thrown up on his sweater, thought he needed to go to hospital, but changed his mind.

An emergency visit to a hospital is one of the allowable circumstances where a person under a court-ordered curfew can breach it.

Beckett said Alobaid, who is single and from Saudi Arabia, came to Canada in 2011, spent a year in Toronto where he learned English, and then began attending Laurentian University on a scholarship.

Beckett said Alobaid has a year left in his studies and that a criminal conviction could have resulted in his visa status being reviewed.

"He is a young man who is here as an international student," Kim said. "He continues to invest in his education … Although he was in a vehicle just 17 days after he was put on the condition, he was quite ill."

Kim also said that had the case gone to trial, the Crown would have had some legal issues to sort through.

HCarmichael@postmedia.com