Jail for Rotorua man who bounced cheques

Photo / file

A Rotorua man who wrote $13,000 worth of bounced cheques has been jailed for a year.

Andre Dillion Paul, 34, was sentenced in the Rotorua District Court yesterday after earlier pleading guilty to 19 charges of obtaining by deception.

Judge James Weir said Paul bought a range of goods from shops in Rotorua and Tauranga over about a three-month period using cheques he knew could not be met by the bank.

He later told police he sold the goods and spent most of the money on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.

Paul's lawyer, Greg Burt, said his client had for a long time struggled with mental illness and also had drug and alcohol issues.

Judge Weir accepted Paul had mental health problems and was on a significant amount of medication.

However he said a psychiatric report had found Paul was fit to plead and be dealt with by the court.

The judge said Paul had 14 previous dishonesty convictions, including an aggravated robbery in 1999 for which he was jailed for four years. In 2011 he was also convicted for offending similar to the current charges.

"This offending must inevitably lead to imprisonment,'' the judge said.

In reaching the sentence, Judge Weir gave Paul credit for his early guilty plea and his personal difficulties.