A man who allowed criminals to steal the personal details of his Vodafone store customers has avoided time in prison.
Mohit Arora, 34, was charged after it emerged that a criminal group stole his customers' identities to set up fake credit cards and loans in 2019 and 2020.
He later pleaded guilty to aiding the fraud.
During his sentencing today, the ACT Supreme Court heard the net damage to several financial institutions, including ANZ, the Commonwealth Bank and American Express, was about $1 million.
The victims told the court they were devastated to learn what had happened.
Arora had owned two Vodafone shops: one in Tuggeranong, in south Canberra, and the other in the nearby New South Wales city of Queanbeyan.
He said he had allowed a man who offered IT support access to his computer system, and that person had passed details to the criminal group.
Justice Stephen Norrish told the court that Arora had entered the telecommunications franchise without appropriate experience.
"Although I have no doubt he knew the significance of handing out the confidential material."
Arora said, at one point, he had asked the IT worker if what he was doing would affect him; the man assured him it would not.
Justice Norrish noted Arora had not benefited from the scheme at all, and had been recklessly involved rather than knowingly involved.
He also rejected suggestions from the prosecution that the fraud was a sophisticated scheme, suggesting instead it was rudimentary.
Arora was sentenced to two years in jail, though that was wholly suspended pending a three-year good behaviour order.
