B.C. court fines man $1,750 for identity theft

The B.C. Provincial Court has fined a man $1,750 to send a message to the public about the seriousness of identity theft.
In R. v. Mahovlich, the court found the accused, Mark Clayton Mahovlich, applied to obtain a British Columbia identity card in the name of his brother, Michael, at an office of the Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC).
Mark’s driver’s licence was cancelled on Feb. 5, 2009, the court found. Almost one year later, Mark attended at an ICBC office and applied to obtain a British Columbia identity card in Michael’s name. According to a pre-sentence report, Michael had been living in the United States for approximately 20 years.
Mark presented two pieces of ID, neither of which had a photo. ICBC took a picture of Mark.
Sometime during the application process, ICBC’s facial recognition software led to the discovery that the images of Mark and Michael were not the same.
“Had the application been successful, the result would have been that the accused before the court, Mark Mahovlich, would have ended up with a piece of identification and, I think it must be said, a very important piece of identification, that would have had his photograph on it but would have been in his brother Michael’s name,” the judge found.
“According to Crown’s submission, it could have been used as a form of gateway identification to obtain quite a number of other things, such as driver’s licences, possibly credit cards, possibly passports, and could likewise have been used, for example, for purposes of identifying the holder for sales on Craigslist and the like.”
The court observed that identity fraud is a serious offence punishable by up to a $20,000 fine and a prison sentence of up to six months.
The court considered Mark’s means, took into account that he was receiving disability payments, and ordered a fine of $1,750.
The full decision can be found at:
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2011/03/p11_0378.htm