In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Richard Vallieres should pay a fine equal to the value of the syrup he stole – not just the profit he made from it.
The court gave Valier 10 years to pay the fine, otherwise he will serve six years in prison.
Vallieres was found guilty in 2016 of fraud, trafficking and stealing 9,500 barrels of syrup between 2011 and 2012 from a central Quebec warehouse that stores produce from the province’s maple syrup producers. The stolen syrup was worth more than $ 18 million, but Valier said during his trial that he sold it for $ 10 million and made a profit of $ 1 million.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Quebec Court of Appeals erred in reducing its fine to $ 1 million.
“Distinguishing between the income and expenses of an offender in order to determine the perpetrator’s profit margin would be tantamount to legitimizing criminal activity,” said Chief Justice Richard Wagner.
Revenues from criminal provisions in the Penal Code are strict, the Supreme Court said, because they specifically seek to “deprive the perpetrators of the fruits of their crimes and remove any incentive from them to pursue their criminal purposes.”
“Parliament sends a clear message that ‘crime does not pay’ and thus seeks to discourage individuals from organizing and committing profit-oriented crimes.”
The Supreme Court reduced Valiere’s $ 10 million fine by about $ 830,000, the amount owed to the syrup producers’ federation in a separate court ruling.
The court was also asked to determine whether the $ 9 million fine should be shared between Vallieres and his accomplices in order to avoid a “double recovery” of the money received for the stolen syrup. The judges said Vallieres did not prove in court or on appeal that there was a risk of a double recovery.
This Canadian Press report was first published on March 31, 2022.
