Island man with forged cheques jailed

A P.E.I. man whose bank won’t let him deposit cheques through ATMs because of past fraudulent behaviour was sentenced recently to 90 days in jail for using forged cheques.

Paul Lombardi, 30, appeared before Judge John Douglas in provincial court in Charlottetown where he pleaded guilty to three counts of using a forged document, along with one count each of breaching his probation and breaching an undertaking.

Crown attorney Lisa Goulden detailed several incidents in which Lombardi either tried unsuccessfully or succeeded in getting forged cheques cashed.

In one case, Lombardi got someone to deposit cheques he said he got through employment but couldn’t deposit because he didn’t have a bank account.

Lombardi also went to a Royal Bank branch and tried to cash cheques made payable to himself. Goulden said the assistant manager was familiar with Lombardi because of previous fraudulent cheque incidents and refused the deposit.

Goulden told the court the bank previously cut off Lombardi’s ability to deposit money through ATMs.

Lombardi also breached his probation by calling and sending messages to a woman he wasn’t supposed to have contact with.

In another incident, Lombardi was on an undertaking, which included a curfew, but when the police did a check at the address he provided to a justice of the peace they were told he hadn’t lived there for several months.

Goulden said Lombardi has shown a repeated pattern of fraudulent activity that causes losses to his victims.

He was also deceptive to a justice of the peace to secure his release from custody after his arrest, Goulden said.

Defence lawyer Alex Dalton told the court substance abuse was the underlying issue for Lombardi and he is on the methadone program.

She asked for Lombardi to be able to serve his sentence intermittently so he can continue working.

Douglas sentenced Lombardi to a total of 90 days in jail to be served on weekends on two of the charges.

Lombardi will be on probation for one year.

Douglas adjourned sentencing on the rest of the charges until Oct. 16, at which time he will get an update from probation services on how Lombardi has been doing.