Bert & Ernie's Case — Theft Over $5000 — Sentenced

Between
Her Majesty the Queen, and
Bert N.

Ontario Court of Justice
Toronto, Ontario
Judge Harris

Sentencing:  21 April 2008
(12 paras.)

¶ 1     P. HARRIS (orally):  The only thing I can put it down to, Mr. Bert N., is that you are a young fellow and maybe you had some maturing to do at the time this came up.

¶ 2     I am just looking at what I said to Mr. Dexter C., and the same thing applies to you, is that it is not just the recovery of the laptop. When three laptops go missing in an office like this, it probably shuts down an awful lot of the work of the office. It will put three employees out of business completely, and the loss of the information, and the projects they are working on, and the files, are probably worth many, many times what the laptops are worth. It is just the security aspect of it. Once all these personal files get out, I do not know if it is life insurance or some other kind of insurance, but that is all very sensitive information that is probably on these computers.

¶ 3     As inside jobs go, this is one of the classics, where people are hired to guard, walk off with the very property they are hired to guard, and you could only do that with the kind of technology that Mr. Dexter C. had to open the office.

¶ 4     So, on the one hand, I cannot imagine what you were thinking of, because at the same time you had some plans for a future career in policing, but on the other hand, I guess I do give you credit for doing all the community service that you have done, and there are many, many letters here in this package of all the different ways that you participated in a whole number of charities.

¶ 5     You have given the laptop back, and it is sort of better late than never. I really have no idea what this cost this firm, but even getting the laptop back, I am sure it was not only thousands of dollars of lost time, but the integrity of the whole set of confidential records of an insurance company are badly undermined here.

¶ 6     Having said all that, I cannot see any reason for differentiating between yourself and Mr. Dexter C. It is not the usual kind of sentence for a position of trust. I can tell you, within the last 15 years — the law seems to be in a state of flux right now because 15 years ago you would get time in custody for a position of trust theft of something valuable like this, and I think what is happening is that, well, I think Courts are taking into account that there is a lot of damage that happens to a person that is involved in this, including losing your job and having that black mark on your record, because if anybody ever chooses to contact your previous employment, they will find out about that, but you know, maybe some time in the future you can put this behind you if you work hard enough and really start to understand the importance of preserving and keeping a clean record, particularly if you want to go into policing.

¶ 7     So, I am going to take a chance that is all I need to do, Mr. Bert N., to ensure you never come back into the Court system.

¶ 8     There will be a conditional discharge, a period of probation for three years. The terms are you keep the peace and be of good behaviour. You are not to be employed as a security guard or a peace officer during that period of time. You are not to be found on the property of 344 Bob Street, that is the C*** C*** building.

¶ 9     I take it it was intended that there be no reporting at all, Counsel —

¶ 10     MR. FLAHERTY:  Yes, sir.

¶ 11     THE COURT:  — Is that the plan?

¶ 12     MR. FLAHERTY:  That's correct.

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