Embezzler gets second chance.

I was reading about John Blundell being given 1 year to pay back the $265,000 he embezzled from Murrieta. The judge, James T. Warren, supposedly went out on a limb to allow Blundell the opportunity to repay. It seems Blundell has a bit of a gambling problem. Since the city was reimbursed by insurance, why is a judge taking it upon himself to grant lenience to a perpetrator? Do you think that a thief should be treated like one and that the judge overstepped his authority?