A former hospital employee, who stole the personal information of new mothers and sold it to registered education savings plan (RESP) dealers, has been fined and sentenced to community service and probation.

Earlier this year, Shaida Bandali pled guilty to one count of unregistered trading for accessing patient information on her job at the Rouge Valley Hospital, compiling investor lists and selling that information to scholarship plan dealers. Now, in the wake of that plea, Bandali has been fined $36,000, plus an additional $9,000 victim surcharge, which goes into a government fund to help victims of crime. Justice Kathleen Caldwell of the Ontario Court of Justice also ordered Bandali to perform 300 hours of community service and sentenced her to two years’ probation.

Bandali was charged following an investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission’s (OSC) Joint Serious Offences Team (JSOT). The OSC reports that, in sentencing Bandali, Justice Caldwell said that the fine she imposed “reflects the seriousness of the breach of trust component and the vulnerability of the victims.

“All of the victims had recently given birth and were thus by definition at a very stressful and vulnerable, albeit joyous, time in their lives,” Justice Caldwell added, noting that this highlights how many of the victims felt that their trust had been violated.

Separately, the OSC has also brought charges against a couple of former branch managers with RESP dealers, Poly Edry and Subramaniam Sulur, alleging that they also violated securities rules by purchasing confidential information from Bandali. Those allegations have not been proven. The next scheduled court date in that case is set for Nov. 25 at Old City Hall in Toronto.

Another case, brought by the OSC, involving the alleged theft of the private information of maternity patients is also slated for court later this week. That case, against a former RESP dealer rep and a nurse who worked at two different hospitals, is scheduled in court in Toronto for Nov. 26.