Consider three hypothetical people. The first has a folder of other people’s SIN numbers and bank details on a laptop. The second sells a stranger’s driver’s licence information to someone over a messaging app. The third gives a brother’s name to a police officer during a traffic stop on Queen Street. All three could be facing charges in Brampton, but not the same ones, and that is the thing most people misunderstand about identity crime.
People use “identity theft” and “identity fraud” as if they mean the same thing. The Criminal Code does not. It separates getting or holding someone’s information, passing that information on, and actually posing as that person. Each has its own requirements, and a charge may rise or fall on which one the facts really support.
Please read this as general information rather than legal advice. If police have contacted you or you have been charged, speak to a lawyer about your own facts before you respond.
What Counts as Identity Information
Section 402.1 defines identity information broadly. It covers any information commonly used, alone or in combination, to identify a person. The list includes names, addresses, dates of birth, signatures, electronic signatures, user names, credit and debit card numbers, bank account numbers, passport numbers, Social Insurance Numbers, health card numbers, driver’s licence numbers and passwords. It also reaches biological information such as fingerprints and voice prints.
This is why ordinary-looking data can matter. A name and date of birth do not seem like much on their own, but paired with a SIN and an address they can open an account. Courts look at how the information was held and used, not only at how sensitive it appears.
Three Offences, Three Different Acts
Identity theft, section 402.2(1). A person commits this offence by obtaining or possessing someone else’s identity information with the intent to use it to commit an indictable offence that includes fraud, deceit or falsehood. Note what is missing: nobody needs to have actually been defrauded yet. The law targets the preparation stage. The offence is in the intention, and so the mere presence of information on your phone is not enough.
Trafficking in identity information, section 402.2(2). This covers transmitting, making available, distributing, selling or offering for sale another person’s identity information, or possessing it for those purposes, while knowing or being reckless about whether it will be used for that kind of crime. Recklessness matters here. A person who sells data without asking questions may not be able to rely on saying that they never knew what the buyer planned.
Identity fraud, section 403. This is the act of fraudulently personating another person, living or dead, with one of four purposes: to gain an advantage, to obtain property, to cause someone a disadvantage, or to avoid arrest or prosecution or obstruct justice. Personating includes pretending to be the person, or using their identity information as if it were your own.
The offences carry different maximums. Identity theft and trafficking are hybrid offences with a maximum of five years if the Crown proceeds by indictment. Identity fraud is also hybrid, with a maximum of 10 years on indictment. Summary proceedings are available for all of them and generally carry a maximum of a $5,000 fine, up to two years less a day in jail, or both.
Identity Fraud Is More Than Financial Fraud
Many people picture credit cards and bank accounts, but section 403 goes much further. Its fourth purpose, avoiding arrest or obstructing justice, reaches a situation that surprises people. If you give a police officer another real person’s name to avoid a warrant or a suspended-licence charge, that can be identity fraud, and it may also expose that person to a record of a charge that is not theirs.
Other scenarios that can raise concerns include taking an online test or exam in someone else’s name, using a relative’s name and credentials to obtain a job, signing a rental application as someone else, or logging into a person’s account and posting as them to hurt their reputation. Some of these situations involve no money at all. An advantage or a disadvantage may be enough.
Everything still depends on the word “fraudulently”. Someone using a nickname, a family member paying a bill with a shared card and the owner’s permission, or an assistant signing with authority is in a different position from a person trying to deceive. Permission and honest belief can be real issues, and they should be raised with evidence.
How These Files Are Usually Built
Identity cases are often document-heavy and rely on digital traces. In Peel, an investigation may begin with a complaint to a bank, a credit report showing an unfamiliar loan, or a police traffic stop. The material can include:
- Bank and lender records, including application forms and identification copies
- Video from a branch, ATM, retailer or car dealership
- IP addresses, device data, and account login records
- Phones and laptops seized under a warrant
- Delivery records for cards or goods sent to a given address
- Statements from the person whose identity was used
The usual fight is over who actually did it. An address or a phone number may link to you without proving that you were the person at the keyboard. Shared devices, shared households and shared accounts create real doubt, particularly where several roommates or relatives use the same internet connection. On the other side, video of a person handing over a false ID, or messages discussing the plan, can be hard to explain.
Searches also matter. Phones and computers hold deeply private information, and police usually need judicial authorization to search them. If a device was searched without proper grounds, your lawyer may look at whether the Charter was breached and whether the evidence should be excluded.
Related Charges That Often Appear Together
Identity charges rarely travel alone. It is common to see one person charged with several offences from one set of facts, and the Crown may later withdraw some of them. These may include:
- Fraud, section 380, if money or property was obtained or put at risk
- Possession of property obtained by crime, section 354
- Forgery or using a forged document, sections 366 to 368, if a false licence, pay stub or letter was involved
- Credit card offences, section 342
- Possessing or trading in identity documents, section 56.1, which covers documents such as a health card or a licence relating to another person
Section 56.1 can apply to a physical card even without a plan for a specific fraud, although it has listed exceptions, including acts done in good faith in the ordinary course of business and acts done with the consent of the person concerned. Someone holding a friend’s passport as a favour should get advice before assuming the situation is harmless.
Possible Defences
Which defence fits depends on the charge, but several questions come up repeatedly.
Did the Crown prove identity? Being connected to an account, a device or an address is not the same as being the person who acted.
Did the Crown prove the required intent? For section 402.2(1), the person must have intended to use the information for a crime involving fraud, deceit or falsehood. Innocent reasons for having data exist, especially in businesses such as payroll, leasing and customer service. An employee who has client records on a work laptop is not automatically guilty of anything, although unauthorized copying can look quite different.
Was there consent or authority? If a family member gave permission to use a card or an account, that matters a great deal, though the person’s later account of what they agreed to may be disputed. Try to preserve any messages that show permission.
Was the evidence lawfully obtained? Warrants, production orders and device searches may be open to challenge.
If the person says, “I was the victim, too,” that also needs careful handling. Some people are drawn into schemes through job offers, money mule requests, or a friend’s request to receive a parcel or pass funds through their account. Being deceived can be a real answer to a charge requiring dishonest intent, though wilful blindness can defeat it if a person deliberately avoided obvious questions.
Sentencing and Financial Consequences
Sentencing depends on the number of victims, how sophisticated the scheme was, the losses, any breach of trust, and the person’s background. A first offender on a small matter is in a very different position from someone who ran an organized operation. Because the maximums here are below 14 years, discharges and conditional sentences remain legally possible, subject to the usual tests.
Identity offences also have a restitution provision of their own. Under section 738(1)(d), a court can order an offender convicted under section 402.2 or 403 to pay a person’s reasonable expenses in re-establishing their identity, including replacing documents and correcting credit history and credit rating, where the amount is readily ascertainable. That sits alongside any restitution for money actually lost.
A conviction involving dishonesty also tends to cause particular harm in work involving finances, property or trust. A real estate, mortgage, insurance or bookkeeping career can be affected, and non-citizens should get immigration advice before any plea.
If Someone Used Your Identity
Sometimes the person reading this is on the other side. If someone used your name in Brampton, report it to Peel Regional Police, contact your bank and creditors, and ask the credit bureaus about placing an alert on your file. Keep the police report number and a log of every call. Should a charge ever appear under your name because someone gave your details to police, get legal help right away to correct the record. Our office in Brampton can talk through that situation as well.
First Steps if You Are Accused
Do not explain yourself to the investigator without legal advice. Do not contact the person whose identity is involved. Do not delete messages, wipe a phone, or close accounts, because destroying evidence can create a further charge and may look like consciousness of guilt. Gather your release papers and write a private timeline for your lawyer, noting who else had access to your devices and accounts.
Our criminal defence page outlines how to begin a conversation with us. Identity cases can often seem overwhelming because of the volume of paper, but much depends on careful answers to a few questions: who acted, what they intended, and what the Crown can actually prove.