A man caught selling fake concert vacation packages in Whitehorse has been ordered to pay back the money he stole and spend nine months in jail.

His alleged victims in other parts of the country, however, aren't likely to see any of their money.

Glen Wade Thompson was arrested in the spring after scamming three Whitehorse residents. The victims thought they were getting a great deal on tickets to see Michael Buble, Lady Gaga and the Eagles, but what they got was a fistful of air.

All three bought the tickets from Thompson after the 39-year-old man came to their places of work, purporting to work for a company called Bytown Tickets, the court learned during his sentencing hearing.

"(Thompson) provided elaborate and detailed documentation containing terms and conditions ... that were professional in appearance,” territorial court Judge Heino Lilles wrote in his reasons for sentencing. "Mr. Thompson had previously worked in (the ticket brokerage) business and understood it well.”

Thompson even went as far as having an extensive e-mail correspondence with a Vancouver hotel regarding rooms for his victims, leading the judge to wonder "whether he was planning to spring some fraud on the hotel itself.”

None of Thompson's victims were suspicious – they all gave him cash in amounts ranging from $200 to $420 – until he failed to deliver the tickets on time. His cover was blown when one of his marks discovered the website

"Who Is Wade Thompson Scamming Now?” which describes a number of alleged scams Thompson is said to have perpetrated across the country.

The site is devoted entirely to one man's quest to discredit Thompson. Since Thompson's arrest in the spring, several other alleged victims, including one person who says she is Thompson's own sister-in-law, have posted comments.

"He is a sociopathic scam artist and has been for 24 years,” the person identified as Susan Thompson writes.

"We cut all ties to him, after he scammed us when we were broke newlyweds with a six-month-old baby. And I'd testify to that.”

When police first alerted the public to Thompson's scheme, they also said he had a history of defrauding people.

"This particular male has committed similar frauds throughout Alberta as well as British Columbia, Montreal and possibly the Maritimes as well,” Sgt. Don Rogers said in a March 16 press release.

Lilles alluded to charges in other jurisdictions, but Thompson's lawyer told the Star that no charges or warrants from other parts of the country were dealt with during Thompson's Yukon hearing.

The 39-year-old man has been in custody since his arrest in March, and reports from the jail were taken with some hesitation from the judge.

"The reports were exceptional and dealt with how he had helped reorganize the library, among other things,” Lilles noted.

"But I want to make it very clear I do not view these reports as evidence that Mr. Thompson has reformed. ... I note, merely as an aside, that Mr. Thompson is a salesman and salesmen can be very convincing, and sometimes they can also be sincere.”

He went on to say Thompson would be a free man but for his long criminal record.

In addition to his nine-month sentence (of which he has served six months), Thompson is barred from going to any of his victims' workplaces. He must pay back the money he took within six months of his release, and serve 16 months' probation, during which he must tell his probation officer of his whereabouts if he leaves the territory.

"It gives the probation officer the opportunity to alert the RCMP that he is present,” said Crown prosecutor Bonnie Macdonald.

At the end of the sentencing, Thompson thanked the judge, to which Lilles responded: "The future is not predictable, but I have to tell you that, in my experience, the best indicator of future behaviour, unfortunately, is past behaviour.

"That does not bode well for you unless you take some concerted steps to change what you have been doing.”