Article content

MONTREAL – For Avik Caron, opportunity came knocking in 2011 when the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers rented a warehouse partly owned by his wife to store that year’s harvest.

As if he had been handed the keys to a bank vault, Caron almost immediately began looking for a black-market buyer who could convert the syrup-filled barrels into cash in his pocket.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Sweet revenge for Quebec maple syrup producers: Thief gets five years for role in $18.7 million heist Back to video

As he sentenced Caron Friday to a five-year prison term and a $1.2-million fine, Quebec Court Judge Jacques Lacoursière called Caron the “instigator” of a brazen theft that went on for a year and netted nearly 3,000 tonnes of syrup.

“The Court regards this matter as the perfect illustration of the maxim, ‘Opportunity makes the thief’,” Lacoursière said in his Trois-Rivières courtroom.

Caron, who pleaded guilty in January to charges of theft and trafficking related to the disappearance of maple syrup worth $18.7 million, exploded with anger when he heard the stiff sentence.