Birth date altering leads to jail term

A Welsome Bay man who altered the year of his birth on a photocopy of his driving licence to obtain loans and hire purchase credit totalling $27, 299 has been jailed for six months.
Peter Robert Dickey, 56, who earlier admitted one charge each of altering two documents and knowing a document was altered to commit intentional fraud, plus three charges of using a document to obtain funds by deception was sentenced in Tauranga District Court yesterday.
The court was told that between January 1, 2001 and August 25, 2005, Dickey changed the year of birth on his driving licence which was used as form of identification to obtain a BNZ Visa card.
On July 5 last year Dickey then used the altered driving licence and his Visa card to obtain a $20,000 loan from finance company GE Money and as well as $699 for an old hire-purchase agreement.
Three months later Dickey then obtained further credit from GE money for $6600. When the fraud came to light, Dickey told police that he had committed the fraud because he had got into financial difficulty and was struggling to pay his bills and had difficulty living within his means.
Some of the items were subsequently repossessed.
Judge Christopher Harding said Dickey had more than 40 previous convictions, including a number for dishonesty and resulted in him being jailed for 15 months in 2001.
That had not deterred Dickey from reoffending, the judge said.
"Nothing short of imprisonment can be contemplated for this sort of repetitive, premeditated dishonesty."
Judge Harding said the pre-sentence report showed Dickey had failed to complete psychological counselling to address the causes of his offending.
Dickey was granted leave to apply for home detention.