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Through a contact living in Ontario who was registered as an SQM insider, Tacchi obtained a free-flight redemption code for Air Canada. He was not registered with SQM himself nor did he ever book any services through the company’s mystery shopper program.

Court documents note that between March 2013 and July 2013, Tacchi used the code to book four trips for himself and his family, which included 13 legs of flights, some of which were first-class tickets. Tacchi also used the free code to help friends book flights and in one case, charged a friend $400 to do so.

In total, Tacchi was responsible for booking $35,996.95 worth of free flights using the code and as a result, collected $554.33 in frequent flyer miles.

“The amount involved in these frauds is not insubstantial,” wrote Judge Patrick Chen. “The sole motivation for these offences was greed. The accused used a fake name and fake address when filling out forms to perpetrate some of the frauds.”

However, Chen noted that there were a number of mitigating factors in his decision, including Tacchi’s guilty plea and remorse, as well as his proactive enrolment in counselling. The initial criminal investigation and the resulting publicity was also a factor in the breakdown of Tacchi’s marriage, leading to “damage to his reputation.”

The judge also noted that Tacchi had no criminal history, continued to provide financial support to two ex-spouses and their children and had a number of references supporting his character, including one from a street musician he met while working in Nepal who said Tacchi had paid for the musician’s three children to attend school over the past four years.

As a result, the judge handed down a conditional discharge instead of a sentence, ordering Tacchi to abide by probation conditions for six months and complete 20 hours of community work. He is also ordered to pay Air Canada a one-time restitution of $36,551.27.

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