More jail time for ‘fraudster’

By Michelle Herbison
A GEELONG magistrate has ordered more jail time for a former Whittington man who finished a New South Wales prison sentence days earlier.
Police extradited Robert Gibson, 58, to Victoria, after he left Silverwater Correctional Centre this month.
Geelong Magistrate Thomas Barrett handed Gibson another year in prison.
Gibson pleaded guilty to all 23 charges for a series of chequebook and credit card offences between March 2003 and July 2006. Seventeen offences were for obtaining property or financial advantage by deception, with others including motor vehicle theft and failing to answer bail.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Jacki Davis read the court a lengthy summary detailing Gibson’s crimes.
The summary said Gibson exchanged cheques from a bank account with insufficient funds for goods including a house deposit, cars, jewellery and a computer.
Gibson presented invalid cheques in 2003 to Geelong businesses including Duff’s Jewellers, Dick Smith Electronics, an East Geelong newsagent, a second-hand car dealer and North Geelong’s Spring Creek Transport.
Gibson also bought a car from a neighbour before selling to a wrecker for $220 and attempted to enrol his de facto wife at Gordon Institute of TAFE.
Gibson’s lawyer said her client was “a man who had had a think about his situation in the last couple of years” while in prison. She urged Mr Barrett to consider a suspended sentence because Gibson had been promised a job in New South Wales.
Mr Barrett said he was “not keen on suspended sentences”.
“I don’t think there’s any option but a jail sentence. There has to be some punishment for these matters.”