An Alberta man will have to spend a little more time at the Whitehorse Correctional Centre despite being so desperate to leave that he climbed several fences to escape last November.

Sitting in Whitehorse, the three judges of the Yukon Court of Appeal dismissed 38-year-old Stephen Haga's appeal of the nine-month sentence given to him last December for escaping lawful custody.

If he gets the regular credit at WCC for good behaviour, Haga should be out of jail in a couple of weeks.

Speaking for the three-judge panel from Vancouver, Justice Risa Levine noted that in previous Yukon escape cases, offenders were given between one day and five months behind bars.

Generally, courts must consider precedents set in a jurisdiction or community, it was noted.

However, in this case, there are other important factors, said Levine.

In particular, about 80 important other factors the number of convictions on Haga's criminal record, which dates back to the early 1980s.

As one courtroom observer noted yesterday, for criminal records there's lengthy, and then there's lengthy.

As well, Haga has two prior convictions for escaping lawful custody, including one 18 months earlier in Edmonton. He got six months for that conviction.

That jail term 'apparently had no deterrent effect,' said Levine.

Judge Dennis Overend, the territorial court judge who sentenced Haga in the first place, had also noted Haga's very long criminal record and the recent conviction for the same type of crime in Alberta.

During defence counsel Jamie Van Wart's arguments, Justice Allan Thackray had noted that while six months were deemed appropriate for Haga in Edmonton, only half that was considered appropriate in the Yukon, by the defence's reckoning.

Prosecutor David McWhinnie noted that giving Haga fewer than six months' jail would be like telling other criminals to come to the Yukon because they'll get less prison time.

'While it is not a step up, it is not an aggressive doubling or tripling,' said the prosecutor.

The trial judge simply took the measure of a 'career criminal' who's done this before and needs to be personally deterred, McWhinnie continued.

He noted that in the rest of Canada, jail time for escaping prison is anywhere from three months to 18.

Van Wart stressed it's the Yukon case law that should count the most.

He argued the sentence should be bumped down to between 50 and 90 days, and that Haga should be given the regular double credit for pre-trial time spent in custody.

The three appeal judges rejected that suggestion as well.

Haga, a cocaine addict, showed up in the Yukon last June to spend time with friends before heading home to Edmonton in the fall.

However, criminal charges including one for robbery after a recycling depot employee was attacked by an axe-wielding man bent on stealing a company safe kept him holed up at WCC.

By last Nov. 23, he was 'becoming quite distressed from being so far from home,' his defence lawyer explained at the time.

While a dozen or so other inmates distracted the lone guard by pulling a fire alarm, Haga crawled through a hole in the exercise yard fence. He scaled three more fences on his way to freedom.

That illicit freedom was short-lived, however, as he was arrested two days later in a McCandless Crescent home's attic after a sharp-eyed cop spotted him in the home's doorway while she patrolled the area.

The owner of that home is currently in the midst of a protracted trial on charges of harbouring Haga.

Once he was arrested, noted Levine Wednesday afternoon as she handed down the decision, Haga was returned to where he'd been before, awaiting trial on the robbery charge.

After a trial, Haga was acquitted on Dec. 18, the day before he was sentenced for the WCC escape.

Van Wart argued Haga should get credit for the 25 days he was in custody following his arrest in the attic, and with the regular two-for-one credit for pre-trial custody, 50 days off his sentence.