$1000 fine for fraud

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 4

$1000 fine for fraud

A self-employed signwriter earlier found guilty by a jury on 29 charges of fraud was fined $lOOO when he appeared for sentence before Judge Paterson in the District Court yesterday. The Judge also ordered Paul Robert Boby, aged 43, to pay compensation of $llO4. The charges alleged that Boby took this sum for advertising for a Ranfurly Shield edition of a

“Handy Guide’’ wall calendar, or for a sporting magazine, and that the advertisements were never printed. The complainants generally were proprietors of shops and small businesses, motel proprietors, and hotel managers. The offences were committed in Christchurch and various towns throughout the South Island between January, 1984, and January, last

year. The Judge said that Boby, “a very unrealistic person,” was no stranger to the courts. As the defendant had an ability to learn, and so make reparation, a prison sentence could be avoided, said the Judge. He warned the defendant that further offending would make a custodial sentence inevitable. For Boby, Mr M. J. Glue said that while his

client had considerable artistic ability he was an unrealistic dreamer. There was something of a Walter Mitty about Boby. He developed grandiose schemes but when he was unable to push them through they were simply abandoned, said Mr Glue. He urged that a deferred sentence be considered to enable Boby to make compensation in full.