10 years (indictable) / summary conviction
Identity fraud (fraudulent personation) is a hybrid offence with a 10-year indictable maximum. Under IRPA s.36(3)(a) it is deemed indictable, and the 10-year maximum reaches serious criminality under s.36(1)(a). Fraud and personation offences weigh heavily on character assessments and relate to misrepresentation under s.40.
(1) Everyone commits an offence who fraudulently personates another person, living or dead, (a) with intent to gain advantage for themselves or another person; (b) with intent to obtain any property or an interest in any property; (c) with intent to cause disadvantage to the person being personated or another person; or (d) with intent to avoid arrest or prosecution or to obstruct, pervert or defeat the course of justice. (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), personating a person includes pretending to be the person or using the person's identity information, whether by itself or in combination with identity information pertaining to any person, as if it pertains to the person using it. (3) Everyone who commits an offence under subsection (1) (a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than 10 years; or (b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.