judge handed a seven-year sentence Tuesday to the computer “mastermind” convicted of running a sophisticated crime ring peddling the tools of credit card fraud.Judge Robert Smith argued that Canadian Barcode proprietors Robert Cattral and Catherine Brunet — who was sentenced to four years — were the “top level of the credit card fraud chain” which “strikes at the heart” of the financial system.Cattral was also aware that the devices his company sold worldwide had been used for fraud to fund terrorist activities, the judge argued.“Yet he continued to sell the devices,” Smith said. It was a ground-breaking decision when Smith convicted Cattral, 39, Brunet, 40, and employee Henry Beauchamp, 41, of participating in a criminal organization along with selling devices used for credit card fraud and other offences, which occurred between 2002 and 2004.The law is usually applied to biker gangs. Smith agreed Canadian Barcode was no Hells Angels but concluded organized criminals can do much more harm than those acting alone and counterfeit credit cards already cost Canadian financial institutions $300 million a year.The company sold devices — along with software and technical support — used to steal financial card data anywhere the cards are swiped and forge new cards.One British police officer testified that terrorist sympathizers in Leicestershire used credit card duplication software Cattral wrote to raise money for al-Qaida training camps.Another testified the software was linked to a London counterfeit subway pass scam which likely funded terrorism in North Africa.The fact that Cattral earned a doctorate in computer science and consulted for the RCMP and OPP demonstrates his knowledge and abilities, Smith said.Unfortunately, he chose to use that knowledge to write software and sell devices used to commit fraud, the judge said. Smith also found it aggravating that Cattral — who was convicted of obstructing justice — offered his help to police so he could discover what they knew and tip off his customers.Brunet, meanwhile, doesn’t have Cattral’s technical skills but was the other “directing mind” of Canadian Barcode and covered up what they were doing, including using false names for criminal customers, Smith said.Both will have to pay $40,000 fines. Beauchamp was sentenced to two years and nine months. Street-level fraudster Ravi Shanghavi, a Canadian Barcode customer who was convicted of possessing and trafficking credit card data, was sentenced to 15 months.