Igor Kenk, one of the world's most prolific bicycle thieves, pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to 30 months in jail.

But given his time already served, Kenk learned Tuesday he will only serve four more months in jail before being released.

The judge told Kenk he had saved the state a great deal of money by not going to trial and had indicated remorse through his guilty plea.

Kenk, 50, had originally been charged with 58 theft and drug offences. He pleaded guilty to possessing 10 stolen bicycles and six drug charges. The Crown dropped related drug charges against Jeanie Chung, a concert pianist and Kenk's partner.

"It was a representative sample of the bicycles," said Crown attorney Ruth Kleinhenz, adding, "Proving the theft of 3,000 bicycles would be quite a feat."

Defence lawyer Lon Rose put it this way: "He was in possession of 10 bicycles he ought to have known were hot. That's it."

Kenk ran a bike shop on Queen Street West near Strachan Avenue. On July 17, 2008,  Toronto Police officers in 14 Division executed a number of search warrants.

Their investigation led them to rented garages all over west Toronto. They ultimately recovered about 2,900 bicycles.

According to a statement read in court, Kenk would offer street people either cash or drugs for the stolen bicycles.

Police put the bicycles on display at warehouses on Strachan near the Gardiner Expressway. People streamed in to see if their bikes were present, but in many cases, only frames were left.

Det. Const. Aaron Dennis told reporters on Tuesday: "We actually returned 582 bikes to people. We don't usually get the opportunity to make that many people happy." 

Kenk was released on bail in August 2008 but was re-arrested on Dec. 14. He had gone to one of his rented garages with a guarantor when an incident occurred. As a result of that incident, police charged him with three assault-related offences.

He will be back in court on Friday in relation to those charges.

CTV Toronto's Chris Eby reported that according to what was said in court, bicycle thefts in Toronto plunged by about 500 per year after Kenk's arrest -- and bicycle registrations with Toronto Police soared.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Chris Eby