Often, here in British Columbia Canada, you read and hear stories of criminals getting relatively light sentences, for serious crimes. Three years for a murder; six months for a massive meth factory, that sort of thing. Well, now white-collar criminals can rejoice as well.

After spending huge man-hours tracking and arresting a person that turned out to be Canada's largest identification theft perpetrator to date, Timothy Moisan, is going to prison to serve his sentence -- oh wait a second -- actually he is not going to prison at all. After pleading guilty to a entire litany of crimes, Mr. Moisan was handed down an sentence of only six months. And since he has been in custody waiting for his trial for six months, that period was applied to his sentence, so, only three days after the end of his trial, he is a free man.

In his identification factory in Surrey, British Columbia, Mr. Moisan had personal identification data on tens of thousands of Canadians. He had stacks CD's filled with social security numbers, drivers licenses, passports, health care numbers, and other personal data. He used this data to make hundreds of fake credit cards, and to weasel his way into many bank accounts, to steal money. Timothy Moisan also reportedly stole huge amounts of mail from people as well.  

As anyone who has been a victim of identity theft knows, once your personal information becomes compromised, is incredibly difficult to repair the damage to your credit rating, and to prove you were not involved with any instances of fraud. Undoubtedly, the hundreds (if not more) people victimized by this man will be spending, collectively, far more than 6 months trying to get their finances in order.

"In the end, there's no explanation about how the man behind one of the biggest identity theft rings ever in B.C. got off serving only six months plus a day" reports ctvbc.ca.