A man believed to be the world's most prolific bike thief has been sentenced to 30 months imprisonment in Canada – about one day in jail for every three bikes he is alleged to have stolen.

Igor Kenk, a 50-year-old former police officer from Slovenia, ran a secondhand bike shop in Toronto until his arrest last year, after police recovered 2,865 bikes he had squirrelled away in garages and warehouses throughout the city.

Kenk initially faced 58 charges relating to bike theft and 22 drugs charges, but this week struck a plea deal admitting to 16 charges, 10 for stealing bikes. He is likely to be released within four months, having spent much of the past 18 months in custody.

"It was the appropriate resolution under the circumstances," said the prosecutor Ruth Kleinhenz. It would have been "quite a feat" to prove all the charges against him, she said.

While Kenk was in prison in June Toronto police reported that bike thefts in the city were down 17% compared with the previous year.

Kenk was arrested in July 2008 when Toronto police planted bicycles on the streets and watched to see who stole them. As officers hid in wait, Kenk and another man walked past. Kenk seemed to tell his companion to cut the locks on two bikes, which the man did, before the pair attempted to pedal away.

When police raided Kenk's shop, the Bicycle Clinic, the space was so packed that the fire service had to remove the upper-floor windows and lower the bikes out by rope. Police rounded up the stolen bikes and put them on display in a warehouse. Almost 600 bicycles were returned to their owners.