A Calgary man has been handed a 20-month conditional sentence and ordered to pay $33,625 in restitution for selling fake Calgary Transit UPASS stickers online.

David Philip Smerd received the sentence July 11.

He was charged following a year-long investigation launched when transit officials noticed an increase in the use of high-quality, forged UPASS stickers.

Normally only available to post-secondary students, the passes were being sold online by someone who used false names and phone numbers to conceal their identity.

In January 2018, Canada Border Services Agency intercepted a package with 3,300 forged passes inside which had been produced in China.

Investigators said the 3,300 fake stickers would have represented a revenue loss of about $1.3 million for Calgary Transit.