A career bank executive who became premier Dalton McGuinty’s chief of staff gulped hard and was taken away in handcuffs as he was sentenced to four months in jail for the wiping of hard drives following the $1.1 billion gas plants scandal.

David Livingston, 65, was released from the basement cells at Old City Hall late Wednesday afternoon on his own recognizance after his lawyer launched an appeal of the time behind bars and a January conviction for unauthorized use of a computer.

Livingston, who briefly linked arms with his wife Anne Grittani in the courtroom as they digested the news, also faces 12 months on probabation and 100 hours of community service.

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“That is a harsh and excessive sentence in the circumstances of this case where there was no proof of actual harm,” said Livingston’s chief counsel, Brian Gover.

Justice Timothy Lipson disagreed in a 16-page ruling that took almost an hour to read in Ontario Court of Justice.

“This offence is very serious,” he said. “Mr. Livingston’s plan was to deny the public its right to know about government decision-making with regard to the gas plant controversy.”

“In orchestrating the wiping of the hard drives in this context, the defendant’s conduct was egregious and his degree of responsibility high.”

McGuinty, who was not a subject of an OPP investigation that led to charges and who co-operated with police, expressed support for his one-time top political advisor.

“David Livingston is one of the finest, most decent and honourable persons with whom I have had the privilege to work. What has happened to him is nothing short of tragic.”

Coming a month before the official start of the June 7 election campaign, the governing Liberals at Queen’s Park distanced themselves from Livingston while opposition parties piled on.

“You are dealing with one individual who served not under this government,” said Attorney General Yasir Naqvi, who noted Wynne quickly made document retention rules for political staff “more stringent” as premier after taking over from McGuinty.

Progressive Conservative MPP Vic Fedeli, whose complaint about a “cover-up” of the cancellation rationale prompted the OPP probe in June 2013, said “political corruption in this Liberal government” has been proven.

“They consistently put their political self-interests and their insider friends ahead of the hard-working Ontario taxpayer,” said Fedeli (Nipissing).

“It’s upsetting and angering when a senior operative in the premier’s office is brought before the courts, and sentenced to four months in prison.”

New Democrat MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth) said the sentence will reaffirm for many voters that the Liberal government, struggling in public opinion polls, must be defeated.

“For a lot of people, this will say, ‘yeah, you threw away a billion dollars of public money, you tried to cover it up, it’s reasonable that someone pays a price for it.”

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In his ruling, Lipson said Livingston “deceived” the province’s top civil servant into providing a special computer password that enabled deputy chief of staff Laura Miller’s common-law spouse, Peter Faist, to delete hard drives in the premier’s office before Wynne took power in February 2013.

This was in the face of warnings to preserve government records of important political decisions, freedom-of-information requests on the gas plants and “foreseeable” legal orders for relevant documents on rationale on the cancellations from a legislative committee of MPPs, the judge said.

“Mr. Livingston, however, developed his own ideas early on. He called the legal obligation to disclose ‘political bullshit.’ He thought the power of the committee to compel production was ‘ridiculous.”

Miller was acquitted of criminal charges in a joint trial that began last September.

Lipson branded the scheme a “dishonest” way to protect McGuinty’s government from political fallout over the cancellations of the gas plants in Mississauga and Oakville before the 2011 election that reduced the Liberals to a minority.

Crown attorney Tom Lemon had called for a jail term of six to 12 months.

The two gas-fired power plants in Oakville and Mississauga were unpopular with local residents. Their cancellations prompted the NDP and Conservatives to accuse McGuinty’s government of wasting taxpayer money to save Liberal seats in the western reaches of the GTA.

Livingston spent 29 years as a TD Bank executive before taking early retirement to lead Infratructure Ontario, a Crown corporation, for seven years. He was seconded to McGuinty’s office in 2012 at the height of the gas plants furore.

Lipson cited “exceptional” character references for Livingston in his business, charity and volunteer work but said a strong enough sentence was needed to denounce his actions and send a signal of deterrence. He acknowledged Livingston has a second home in Florida he may have to sell because of the conviction.

There is no direct precedent for Livingston’s case but the judge cited a nine-month sentence for federal Conservative staffer Michael Sona in the “robocalls” scandal and a one-month jail term plus a four-month conditional sentence for former Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro on campaign finance violations.

Both sentences were upheld on appeal.

With files from Robert Benzie and Kristin Rushowy

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