Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti will pay back $17,500 after pleading guilty Friday to campaign overspending and other offences during the 2010 election.

The councillor for Ward 7 (York West), wearing a dark suit in a small second-floor courtroom on Eglinton Ave. W., pleaded guilty to four of five charges under the Municipal Elections Act, including overspending by at least $10,000, filing false financial records and failing to keep records of campaign expenses. One of the four charges was stayed because it was a duplicate of one of the other charges. A fifth charge was withdrawn.

Mammoliti faced a possible trial with a special prosecutor after the city’s compliance audit committee found he had exceeded the limit by just over $12,000.

Though the harshest sentence possible was removal from office, Justice of the Peace Denis Lee — who was assigned specially from Burlington for the case — said he would not overrule a joint submission from Mammoliti’s lawyer, Morris Manning, and special prosecutor Brian Gover.

“We all have different strengths . . . Unfortunately for Mr. Mammoliti, things went off the rails,” Lee said in his ruling. “He’s here today to take his lumps.”

The charges fall under provincial legislation and do not carry a finding of criminal guilt.

Fair Elections Toronto, the watchdog group that pushed for an investigation into Mammoliti’s expenditures, called the decision a “slap on the wrist.”

“This is an outrageous outcome,” Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, one of the group’s directors, said in an emailed statement. “There was no need to duck a trial. Prosecuting Mammoliti to the fullest extent of the law was in the public interest.”

An agreed statement of facts outlined that Mammoliti’s campaign lacked in-house accounting expertise. Instead, campaign volunteers filled out paperwork provided by an outside accountant — something that was complicated by the fact Mammoliti first ran for mayor and later switched to running as a councillor.

“Further complicating matters, Mr. Mammoliti’s mayoral campaign continued to fundraise during the campaign for councillior,” the statement reads.

Some expenses were not recorded at all; for example, a $3,390 order of jackets with “Team Mammoliti” printed on them were not included in financial statements.

The justice of the peace said he accepted the position presented by the agreed statement of facts, which concluded that while Mammoliti did not prepare the financial statements, he was still ultimately responsible for them.

“The court is of the opinion that you did act in good faith at all times — and there may have been an error in judgment in appointing who you did as your financial assistant,” Lee said. “And while the responsibility still is yours, the court is of the opinion that, taking everything into consideration, what has been presented to the court today is a very fair position on all these matters.”

Gover said he was pleased with the outcome.

“I do think this is a fair outcome. It’s fair for the taxpayers,” he said, adding the decision is also fair to Mammoliti and his constituents.

Leaving the courtroom, Mammoliti said he was happy the judge recognized that his overspending was “inadvertent” and that he acted in good faith.

“I’m happy to leave today knowing that I’m going to continue working for my community and I’m happy that this is over,” Mammoliti said.

Mayor John Tory said he would not speak to the decision.

“That’s a matter that he had to take up with the courts, and the courts dealt with it. It’s not up to me to pass judgment on judges. It’s been dealt with,” Tory said.

Asked if he has lost confidence in Mammoliti, Tory said: “The people will have to make that decision.”

Mammoliti was also docked three months’ pay, or $26,000, by council in July after the integrity commissioner found he accepted $80,000 from an improper fundraiser held in his honour. The councillor is challenging that decision in court. Mammoliti has already been reimbursed $20,000 for legal fees in that case, in accordance with council-mandated policy.

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This isn’t the first time a councillor has been forced to repay election money improperly spent in 2010.

According to court records, longtime former councillor Peter Li Preti was fined $11,250 in July after he was accused of accepting illegal corporate donations and exceeding his campaign limit.

Li Preti lost out on the Ward 8, York West, seat by less than 400 votes to Anthony Perruzza. Li Preti could not immediately be reached about the court-imposed fines.