A Yukon man was sentenced Tuesday to eight months in jail for trafficking crack cocaine.

Robert Simard, 45, was arrested last summer as part of a street-level cocaine investigation involving the Yukon RCMP’s federal investigations unit.

Simard pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking last September.

Crown prosecutor Eric Marcoux said Simard’s arrest came after he sold crack cocaine three times to undercover police officers at various locations downtown.

On May 30, 2014, one officer called a Whitehorse phone number, requesting the drug. She was told a man would come by in a white car.

At about 4:15 p.m., she and a second officer got into a white Accent in front of the Shoppers Drug Mart on Main Street. She asked for a “50 rock” and the driver, Simard, pulled from his sock a piece of crack cocaine wrapped in clear plastic. It weighed 0.29 grams.

That night, the undercover officer contacted the number again. Simard pulled up about 10 minutes later. He asked her and the other officer to get in the car – he didn’t like dealing in the street, he said.

They did, and he again sold them a rock for $50. This one weighed 0.24 grams.

The third purchase happened the following day.

The police officer called the number, and said she was outside the 202 Motor Inn on Jarvis Street and wanted to trade a rock for an iPod.

Three people showed up in the white Accent. Simard was in the driver’s seat.

One man inspected the iPod and said it wouldn’t be suitable for the trade because it was cracked. So the undercover officer again paid $50 for a rock, which weighed 0.24 grams.

Simard was arrested a week later downtown. Police found three pieces of crack cocaine in the pocket of his sweatshirt and $35 in his sock.

The eight-month jail term was jointly proposed by Marcoux and Simard’s lawyer David Christie.

Christie said his client has accepted responsibility for what he did.

“He wants to put the past behind him,” he said. “He tells me this isn’t who he is.”

Simard has a limited and unrelated criminal record, court heard.

Christie said his client has three adult children and is a grandfather. He’s a certified mechanic and once ran a taxi company.

Simard has had problems with crack cocaine in the past, Christie said.

This jail term would be significant for his client. “It’s going to be punitive and (it’s going to) hurt.”

Judge John Faulkner opted to impose the recommended sentence. With credit given for time spent in custody after his arrest, Simard will serve seven months at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre.

He must pay a $200 victim fine surcharge and is banned from owning firearms for 10 years.

Simard’s co-accused is scheduled to stand trial in April.