B.C. appeals court upholds 13-month jail sentence for Armstrong fast-food manager convicted of sexually exploiting teenage employee

Surjit Singh, who was 26 at the time of the offences, was sentenced to 13 months in jail in 2024 for sexually exploiting a 16-year-old employee at an Armstrong fast-food restaurant. He had become the restaurant’s temporary manager in the summer of 2021, while the victim had already worked there for several years and was 15 when the relationship began.

Singh knew the girl’s age and had researched the age of consent in Canada online. He brought a cake to her home on her 16th birthday, and sexual contact occurred over a two-month period at the restaurant, in his car, and in his apartment.

“when he wanted to be able to access her cellphone and delete text messages, she let him do that”

The relationship ended when a friend of the victim discovered text messages between her and Singh. The girl’s mother approached restaurant managers, and Singh was suspended before leaving the province. He was later arrested, brought back to British Columbia, and spent eight days in pre-sentence custody.

Singh was convicted of sexual exploitation in May 2024 but was acquitted of other charges, including sexual assault, because the judge accepted that the relationship was mutual and found no evidence of grooming. Consent was not at issue; the case centred on Singh’s position of authority over the victim.

After losing an appeal of his conviction in April, Singh asked the B.C. Court of Appeal to replace the jail sentence with a conditional sentence served in the community. An appeal court panel dismissed this second appeal in a decision released on October 2, finding that the trial judge made no error in imposing a 13-month jail sentence.

Singh launched his sentence appeal on three grounds, arguing that the sentence was inconsistent with parity and failed to account for collateral consequences. The panel rejected these arguments and upheld the original sentence.