Fergie's Tech Blog

ID Theft Sentencing: When The Punishment Doesn't Fit The Crime

Tim Wilson writes on Dark Reading:

Some Canadian critics are outraged today over the sentencing of Bradley Moisan, the man convicted of heading up the largest identity theft ring in the history of the country.

Moisan walked out of jail about three days after his sentence, according to Canadian news reports about the identity theft conviction. He had faced a maximum of 14 years in prison.

Moisan pleaded guilty to his crimes, and the judge gave him a year in jail. But because he had spent six months in custody awaiting trial -- time which is weighed twice because it's before trial -- he had effectively finished the sentence before it began.

Last February, police discovered that a nondescript building in Newton, Canada, was actually an identity theft factory, with hundreds of CDs packed with names, address, phone numbers, and mothers' maiden names. They recovered stacks of passports, driver's licenses, and credit cards -- both real and fake -- as well as reams of stolen mail. Moisan and an accomplice were charged and convicted of the thefts.

posted by Fergie @ 8/22/2008 01:22:00 PM