NEWMARKET, Ont. — A drunk who has killed twice in separate incidents behind the wheel was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in jail.

Jeffrey Dressler, 35, of Holland Landing, Ont., pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing grandfather Ion Mihaila, 66, during a morning of reckless driving Nov. 27.

He became the first person in Canada twice convicted of impaired driving causing death in different collisions.

Justice Howard Chisvin accepted a joint sentencing submission by Crown attorney Harold Dale and defence counsel Dennis Reeve when he sentenced Dressler to 15 years in prison, a lifetime driving prohibition and ordered him to submit a DNA sample.

"Your conduct here was deliberate and callous and in complete disregard for other people on the road,'' Chisvin told Dressler during sentencing.

Both Dale and Reeve said they could find no precedent for a person being convicted twice for impaired driving causing death in separate incidents.

"Now Jeffrey Dressler has become the poster boy for impaired driving causing death,'' Dale said.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Dale told the court Dressler's blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit when the collision occurred.

Dressler had a valid driver's licence at the time but had no insurance on the vehicle he was driving.

Dressler was convicted in 1999 for the same offence after a 1996 incident that killed his friend Barry Peterkin in Innisfil, Ont.

In that case his car careened into a guy wire, decapitating his friend in the passenger seat.

As he fled the scene, Dressler placed the car keys in Peterkin's hand, hoping police wouldn't find him.

He was sentenced to four years but served less than two before being paroled in early 2001.

A dramatic impact statement, via a video recording, came from John Turner, who saw the accident.

He said the worst was seeing the dead body of Mihaila lying alone on the cold, wet road.

"I know he didn't feel (the cold), but he didn't deserve it,'' Turner said. Speaking directly to Dressler, he said, "I don't know if you ever saw him . . . but he was there long after you left.''

"All because you had to have one more drink. You had one more drink and everybody suffers.''

Turner died of cancer in April.