She admitted to stealing more than 12,000 patient records from the maternity ward at the Rouge Valley Hospital and selling them for $1 a pop to financial firms, and for this Shaida Bandali should go to jail, an Ontario Securities Commission prosecutor said Tuesday.

“Ms. Bandali essentially trafficked in the identities of these patients for one reason and one reason only: for her own selfish, financial gain,” OSC prosecutor Cameron Watson told the court. “She didn’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars, but she made just shy of $15,000 and she did that on the back on patients and hospitals.”

Watson asked the judge to impose a sentence of 90 days in prison, to be served intermittently as a general deterrent to others in her position who may be tempted to follow in her footsteps.

A records clerk at Rouge Valley Hospital, Bandali admitted to stealing 12,595 maternity records and selling them to Poly Edry, a former branch manager with Knowledge First Financial Inc., who allegedly peddled Registered Education Savings Plans (RESPs) to the new mothers.

“Ms. Bandali’s conduct was selfish, greedy and delivered over a long period of time,” said Watson. “Perhaps most telling is that the conduct was only stopped because she was caught.”

Bandali’s defence lawyer, John Sheard, asked instead for a $20,000 fine and 300 hours of community service.

“She can never undo the fact that these people were phoned and bothered, but she can give back to society,” Sheard told the judge. “Ms. Bandali is contrite and sincere and has taken responsibility for her actions.”

Bandali’s prosecution under the Ontario Securities Act was made possible only because the patient names were used by financial companies as “customer lists” to market RESPs. Since the law states that any act “in furtherance of a trade” should be considered a trade, Bandali was charged with selling securities without a license.

The Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) was intended to be used to prosecute health professionals for breaching patient confidentiality, but has never resulted in a single conviction.

This fall, Health Minister Eric Hoskins introduced new medical privacy legislation that beefed up the penalties and eliminated some of the weaknesses that stymied previous prosecutions.

An RESP dealer and a nurse at another hospital have been charged criminally in a related case. Their trial has yet to begin.

Judge Kathleen Caldwell did not immediately render a sentence for Bandali.