A Hunter Valley fraudster risked two years jail time for forging signatures and escaped with $15,000 fines in court yesterday.
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James Douglas Paynter forged the names of a cousin and former employee to bought 26 vehicles in August 2010.
“They were in on it,” Paynter, formerly of Warners Bay Road, Mount Hutton, told the court.
Magistrate Sharron Crews said that didn’t absolve him of the crimes.
“I know what I did was wrong, but had to support my kids,” Paynter, a single parent, said.
“I was in survival mode, I’ve never got Centrelink, I was in survival mode to put food on the table.”
Paynter told the court he was given cheap rates from auction houses and would sell on vehicles for a profit, but had no licence to do so.
Court documents said the men, whose signatures were forged, told police about the fraud.
Paynter spoke to Maitland police several months later when he admitted to using the names of the other men, but said they were aware of the fraud and had received kickbacks.
He said the auction houses where he bought most of the cars were also in on the deal and put vehicles aside for him.
Paynter told the court he did have a motor dealer licence for buying and selling motorcycles in 2003.
Court documents said the licence was active until its cancellation by the Department of Fair Trading in 2008.
Paynter pleaded guilty to 23 fraud-related charges, for which he was fined $15,750 and placed on five good behaviour bonds, the longest for two years.
The maximum penalty for falsifying a document to obtain financial advantage is two years jail.