Fraudulent cheques lead to jail time

A P.E.I. man who got people to deposit fraudulent cheques into their bank accounts and unsuccessfully tried to cash one for $1,200 was sentenced recently to seven months in jail.

Paul Lombardi, 30, appeared before Judge John Douglas in provincial court in Charlottetown where he was sentenced on nine charges that included being unlawfully at large, breaching court orders and multiple counts of fraud.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown attorney Lisa Goulden detailed several times Lombardi had people deposit cheques into their bank accounts and withdraw money for him.

Those cheques later bounced. In one incident, Lombardi tried to cash a $1,200 cheque at a Money Mart.

Goulden said Money Mart wouldn’t cash it and alerted the victim whose cheques had been stolen from a car.

The court heard Lombardi breached several court orders, including an undertaking that had a curfew condition.

Goulden said the police did a curfew check at the address Lombardi had given but were told he hadn’t lived there for about two months.

Lombardi was serving a sentence on weekends on other matters, and the court heard he didn’t show up at the jail twice.

Before hearing his sentence, Lombardi addressed the court.

“Addiction has definitely been my downfall for many years,” he said.

Douglas gave Lombardi credit of two months for time spent in custody after his arrest leaving him five months to serve.

Lombardi will be on probation for 18 months after his release and must pay more than $800 in restitution.