From Australia: Poser (Fake Veteran) gets reduced jail time

[1feral1]

Shared IAW the usual.......

At least this mongrel has been publically named and shamed and has a criminal record. Too bad the judge was not a bit more harsh.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/fake-vietnam-war-veteran-colin-maurice-gibbons-wins-jail-cut/story-e6frfku0-1225871245978

A MELBOURNE man who pretended to be a Vietnam War veteran and marched on Anzac Day wearing fake war medals has won a reduced jail term.

Colin Maurice Gibbons, 57, had falsely claimed to be a returned Vietnam War veteran and a military policeman, the Victorian County Court was told.

He also claimed he had lost a lung from Agent Orange.

Gibbons was sentenced in the Dandenong Magistrates Court in February to a four-month jail term, and ordered to immediately serve two weeks behind bars.

However, today, the County Court reduced his sentence to a three-month jail term and he was released on an undertaking of good behaviour for 12 months.

The court heard Gibbons marched with Vietnam War veterans and wore pretend army medals, and a red beret and badge of the military police at the Anzac Day service at Dandenong RSL.


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Gibbons later admitted to police he had never served in the Vietnam War and wasn't entitled to wear the medals.

He also had a prior criminal history with similar convictions in New South Wales.

Gibbons told police he masqueraded in a similar manner in NSW and "old ideas came home to roost" when he came to Victoria in 2005 and joined the Dandenong RSL.

He conceded his behaviour was disgraceful and offensive, saying in his police interview: "I just thought that it would make me part of the group."

His barrister, David Langton, told the court Gibbons' two brothers had long service military records, but he had not achieved much.

He said Gibbons had also joined the army after school, but was discharged after six months due to a sports injury.

Mr Langton added his client had taken positive steps in recent times by reducing his alcohol intake.

Judge Roy Punshon said Gibbons was motivated by a desire for acceptance and approval from others.

"Without being unkind, he seems like a pretty pathetic, inadequate individual with a history of failure and lack of achievement, and they seem to me the primary motivation for this type of behaviour," he said.

Gibbons, of Dandenong, pleaded guilty to falsely representing himself as a returned soldier, wearing service decorations not conferred on him, and falsely representing himself as a person on whom a service decoration has been conferred.



OWDU

 

[Fishbone Jones]

OWDU,

Is this the standard for this type of  thing? Do they feel that publicly outing them is sufficient along with a small sentence, or have people done serious time?

 

[1feral1]

The ones that are caught are openly shamed, very few get time in jail, there are exceptions when long term fraud of Vets benifits some in the 100's of thousands dollars, but these men are in their 80s.  I will see if I can dig up more info on this. A recent discovery was a poser had milked over $400,000 of benifits.

Thanks for your intererst.


Cheers,

OWDU

 

[1feral1]

Here is a national disgrace from the spring (southern) of 2009.....

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/fake-pow-arthur-rex-crane-collected-400000/story-e6freon6-1225782707297

Read some of the reader comments at the bottom of the link....

OUTRAGED ex-PoWs are demanding to know how the Brisbane-based president of their national association, who has been exposed as a fraud, was able to falsely claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in service pension payments.
Arthur "Rex" Crane, 83, the national president of the Ex-PoW Association of Australia, claimed for years he fought the Japanese in Malaya in World War II, was imprisoned in Singapore and survived the notorious Thailand-Burma Railway.

On the strength of that story, Mr Crane is understood to have been paid more than $400,000 by the Commonwealth since 1988, but now it has been revealed he was living a lie.

The Australian Federal Police is investigating claims Mr Crane was at school in Adelaide during the time he was supposed to have been in Malaya, was not sent to the Thailand-Burma Railway and never saw war service.

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He reportedly told a Sydney newspaper: "It looks like the past has caught up, doesn't it? I am going to have to resign from everything. And then I'm buggered if I know what's going to happen from now on".

Mr Crane, who lives in the Brisbane bayside suburb of Wynnum North, was not at home yesterday. An immediate neighbour said she had not seen him for days. Telephone calls to the address went unanswered.

The revelations have shocked ex-PoWs who described the deception as "disgusting" and "a betrayal".

Federal Veterans' Affairs Minister Alan Griffin said the matter would be "pursued to the fullest extent of the law".

"Personally, I think for anyone to impersonate a prisoner of war is disgusting. It is a betrayal of all the values our veterans stand for," he said.

But a past president of the ex-PoW association, Bill Schmitt, said there were serious questions which needed to be answered about how Mr Crane managed to fool the Veterans' Affairs Department.

"How or why did the department accept him and give him a pension without researching him properly?" he said.

"He wouldn't have had much documentation when he applied for a pension.

"He would have to have been promoted by someone who would have sworn that he was who he was and that he did what he said he did. Who was pushing his barrow?"

Mr Schmitt said Mr Crane had been made national association president about a year ago and had been accepted on the basis of what he had told members and because of his relatively youthful age.

"We accepted him on those terms. But of course he lied to us. A lot of our members will be feeling disgusted and betrayed."

The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, which has a record of every Australian forced to work on it by the Japanese as well as extensive wartime records from Malaya and Singapore, said yesterday it had no knowledge of Mr Crane.

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OWDU

 

[Eye In The Sky]

I really have no clue how these folks can look in the mirror, or sleep at night.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Got a three month remand in Feb. Should be about due back in court .

 

[1feral1]

EITS, you're not the only one.

Aside from being a thief, cheat and a liar, he has robbed other vets of funding, and dishonoured all of us who completed our active service, and especially those that never came home - from all conflicts that Australia has fought in.

Truly lowlife disgusting behaviour.

IMHO, regardless of age, throw the book on these mongrels!

OWDU

 

[FastEddy]

The ones that are caught are openly shamed, very few get time in jail, there are exceptions when long term fraud of Vets benifits some in the 100's of thousands dollars, but these men are in their 80s.  I will see if I can dig up more info on this. A recent discovery was a poser had milked over $400,000 of benifits.

Thanks for your intererst.


Cheers,

OWDU

Well its now Obvious that this disgraceful behavior is not  confined geographically to North America.

As Veterans, Members of the Armed Forces, past and present, this behavior not only offends us but disrespects those that have paid the ultimate price. Its natural that we cry out for Justice (lock him up and throw away the key).

I would like to think the Courts in their Wisdom can assign penalties appropriate to the Offense. Where a Fraud has been committed it changes the nature and severity of the Offense. (e.i you defrauded $400.000 this is what you're going to Jail for, how you did it is moot).

As the profiling of these Characters conclude, they are failures in almost every facet of life.
Incarceration is apply jointly to protect the Public and as a Punishment. If no other Felony accompanies the offense. Usually, sentencing consists of Public Exposure, Fines, Community Service,House Arrest, etc. etc.

However, when you reflect on this, they have been Publically Exposed and Shamed. They are Outcasts, why should they be provided with a private room, three meals a day,free Health, Dental, Drugs and Recreaction and Education Programs, at $64,000 a year of your taxes.

Let them die in some Allyway or Gutter probably from HIV Drug rated. I don't know, maybe Prison is not the answere, what do you think,

 

[Trooper Hale]

http://www.anzmi.net/

A great website dedicated to catching these dirtbags and calling them out. Always good for a read. Some of the stories are simply unbelievable! And that so many have got away with so much blows my mind.