Qld: Five teens charged over massive credit card bill

AAP General News (Australia)
12-12-2001
Qld: Five teens charged over massive credit card bill

By Ainsley Pavey

BRISBANE, Dec 12 AAP - Five teenagers racked up a $17,000 credit card bill in one month
after stealing the card from a friend's mother, a court was told today.

The teens were sentenced in Brisbane's District Court after their scam was uncovered
when the card was swallowed by an automatic teller machine.

Grant Matthew Denison, Rebecca Louise Jakeman, Jay William Bull, Benjamin Lloyd Stewart
and Melissa Louise Allan pleaded guilty to one count each of fraud following the spending
spree from March to April last year.

The court was told the group used the card, which belonged to Brisbane woman Julene
Landers, to buy lamps, book cases, electrical equipment and television stands.

The Crown said up to 14 withdrawals were made a day, often in succession, taking anywhere
between $20 and $400 a time.

The court was told Ms Landers had worn the cost as the National Australian Bank refused
to pay it as she had given her card pin number to her daughter, who was friends with the
group.

Each in the group blamed others when they were finally caught after the card was swallowed
by a machine.

The court was told they also used the money on poker machines and cigarettes and were
motivated only by greed.

Denison, who is now 20, had paid back $5,880 - which was more than his share of the
money, raising it while working as a service station console operator.

However, none of the remaining four involved in the scam had paid any money back and
they were sentenced to community service.

Judge Julie Dick sentenced Allan and Jakeman, who are now both 18, and Bull and Stewart,
who are now 19, to 100 hours community service each.

"It would've been a nightmare, I suspect," Judge Dick said.

She also gave the four two years to repay their $3,000 share in the remaining bill
while serving a years' probation.

Judge Dick labelled the group thieves, saying they took the money just after Ms Landers
lost her parents in a car crash.

"You would've known that as friends of her daughter," Judge Dick said.

"You had the hospitality of her home and were invited in and you betrayed that."

She said Ms Landers' relationship with her daughter was strained and would take a long
time to mend.

AAP ap/sc/ldj/de

KEYWORD: CREDIT

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