Atlas Copco fraudsters sentenced to 'long' jail terms, ordered to pay back millions

More than a decade after they first began overbilling Atlas Copco for its employee benefits, eventually stealing a total of $24 million, Paul Caron and Dirk Plate are set to spend their first night in jail Tuesday.

The two 72-year-old men were sentenced earlier today by Justice J.S. Poupore and led from theSudbury courtroom in handcuffs.

Caron, the Montreal insurance broker who looked after the mining company's benefit program, was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $10 million to Atlas Copco within 10 years of his release from prison or face another jail term.

Earlier in the day, Caron, who acted as his own lawyer, asked the court for compassion, while continuing to downplay his role in the fraud scheme.

"I didn't know how to blow the whistle,"Carontold the court, his voice cracking.

"I'm totally ashamed of it. I sincerely apologize."

But Justice Pouporedescribed him as the "mastermind" of the fraud scheme, which involved Caron and three Atlas Copco employees.

One of them was Dirk Plate, the 72-year-old former manager of the Sudbury office, who was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to repay $77,000, plus the $1.4 million in retirement annuities purchased for him with the stolen money.

RalphSteinberg, the lawyer forDirkPlate, argued his client was notdirectly involved in the scheme and described his role as "passive acquiescence" and "almost analogousto willful blindness."

ButPouporedisagreed with that description.

"He knew of and participated in a fraudulent scheme against his employer. He was in a position to bring it to a grinding halt," the judge said.

Crown Attorney Philip Zylberberg says that along with the money owed to Atlas Copco, a "debt is owed to society" which is why he argued that each man should be jailed for eight years.

"This is how we denounce, this is how we deter," he told the court, while describing the fraud as a "large scale display of greed."

"So the next person in their position understands there is a price to pay."

The other two men involved were Atlas Copco'sMontreal-based human resources manager Leo Caron who pleaded guilty in 2013 and was sentenced to five years in jail, along with the formerSudbury office financial manager David Hillier, who avoided being charged by returningthe $400,000 he says he stole and agreeing to testify against his conspirators.

Guilty verdict in $24M Atlas Copco fraud trial