Yellowknife (May 20/05) - A homeless man was sentenced to 15 days in jail last week for using the washroom in the Centre Square Mall just weeks after being banned from the downtown shopping centre.

A security guard found Floyd Tsetso passed out beside a mall urinal March 3, Crown attorney Sandra Aitken said last Tuesday during an appearance in territorial court.

The 29-year-old Deline native was on probation after being convicted of theft in early February. He was banned from the mall as part of the probation order.

His lawyer, Margo Nightingale, said Tsetso needed to use the washroom and there are "limited options" for homeless people in downtown Yellowknife.

Judge Bernadette Schmaltz said she appreciated that Tsetso had to use the facilities, but that did not give him license to enter the mall. "It was a simple probation order," she said.

Tsetso, who was intoxicated during his foray into the mall, was serving a 60-day sentence for mischief, theft and skipping court. Earlier this year an intoxicated Tsetso smashed a window at the Salvation Army and tried to shoplift pork from a downtown grocery store. Schmatlz tacked the most recent jail term onto the end of that sentence.