An Auckland Grammar School pupil who forged scores of driving licences which he sold to other students was sentenced to 400 hours of community service today, narrowly avoiding a prison sentence.
Marcus Lim, 17, appeared in North Shore District Court facing two charges of forging more than 150 driving licences.
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Savage said he made about $12,000 through the venture, which had contributed to an influx of underage people entering licensed premises on the North Shore.
Lim's lawyer, Grant Nicholson, said Lim came to New Zealand as a refugee from Cambodia and had been abandoned by his family.
The money he made from his scheme had been used to pay for his education and living expenses, he said.
Judge Laurie Hinton said he took Lim's personal circumstances into account when delivering his sentence, and had been considering a sentence of six months in prison.
"You need to dedicate your obvious talents towards a legitimate enterprise," he said.
A computer seized by police contained a database of 250 names of people understood to have received a forged licence.
Almost all were 16 and 17-year-olds from 15 Auckland schools.
More than 60 students later returned fake licences to police stations, although police said at the time that many others would never be found.
