A B.C. Supreme Court judge has refused to return blood to an unnamed person who appeared in his courtroom seeking to get it back.

Instead, Justice Robert Jenkins granted the Crown’s application to retain the blood for an additional 18 months in connection with a possible prosecution for impaired driving.

The person was in a motor-vehicle accident, which prompted the police investigation.

According to Jenkins’s June 15 ruling, two vials of blood were seized from Royal Columbian Hospital on February 24, 2017, after the RCMP obtained a production order. The Mounties had legal authorization to seize the person’s health records from the hospital two months later.

“From those records, the RCMP officer learned that blood had been taken from the suspect at Royal Columbian Hospital and a toxicology screening indicated the suspect’s blood alcohol concentration to have been high on the date of the accident and that cannabis was also detected and referenced as high in the same report,” Jenkins wrote.

He concluded that the items—two vials of blood—could not be needed for any purpose, which wouldn’t necessarily have been the case if other items, such as a cellphone or vehicle, had been seized.

“There is no reason given in the matter before me of ‘the exact nature of their need for return’ and it is difficult to imagine what possible need the suspect may have for the same,” Jenkins concluded.