Their lives weren't 'ruined', just like nobody's life is 'ruined' when someone (over multiple trips) shoplifts a few thousand (or tens of thousands of) dollars

Their lives weren't 'ruined', just like nobody's life is 'ruined' when someone (over multiple trips) shoplifts a few thousand (or tens of thousands of) dollars worth of goods from a large store chain. But someone, somewhere along the way did lose some amount of money. The fact that the sentence was only 18 months reflects that, somewhat.