that the conditional tense is an if/then statement
Conditional
mood, actually - it's not a tense. Imperative, ditto.
There's a difference between if/then conditionals with ordinary indicative mood, and the conditional you've mentioned.
1.
Jeśli on to zrobił, to on powinien dostać mandat -> If he did that, he ought to get a ticket
2.
Gdyby on to zrobił, to dostałby mandat -> If he had done that, he would have got a ticket
2. is either improbable or impossible (counterfactual), while 1 is possible.
Conditional mood is also used for polite requests -
zrobiłbyś to dla mnie? ->would you mind doing that for me?