Dannevirke man sentenced for taking cheques

A man who took two cheques belonging to his father was sentenced in Dannevirke District Court on Friday.

A Dannevirke man who took cheques belonging to his father was always going to be caught out, Dannevirke District Court heard on Friday.

Facing a charge of using a document for pecuniary advantage was Jared Gilmore Hall.

Counsel for Hall, Alan Cressey, said reparation for the value of the cheques cashed and emotional harm reparation were being sought.

He told the court Hall had taken the cheques as he urgently needed to buy a fridge to replace one that had been taken by his ex-partner.

It had contained frozen food that Hall did not want to spoil.

Hall wasn't working at the time.

Cressey said there was bad blood running through the family so Hall did not feel he could ask for help from his father.

"He accepts he has done the wrong thing and is prepared to make amends."

Judge Bruce Northwood said Hall had sneaked into his father's home and took two cheques from his chequebook.

"He signed the cheques in his father's name but wrote his own name on the back of the cheques. So he always knew this would come back to bite him."

The cheques had a combined value of $510.

"I appreciate that your relationship with your father is not good, but there are other ways of sorting out your problems."

Judge Northwood said he had considered imposing a sentence of community work on Hall but as he had since gained work in a shearing shed as a wool presser and this often required that Hall work on Saturdays, the only day that community work was now available in Dannevirke, that would interfere with his work.

He ordered Hall pay $510 reparation for the cheques and $200 emotional harm reparation to his father.

"I hope this will go some way to healing the rift with your father," Judge Northwood said.