Qld: Conman Peter Foster loses appeal for reduced jail term

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2008
Qld: Conman Peter Foster loses appeal for reduced jail term

By Jessica Marszalek

BRISBANE, April 18 AAP - Conman Peter Foster has lost an appeal to have his jail time
for money laundering reduced.

Foster, 45, of the Gold Coast, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years jail in December
after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court to a money laundering charge.

He is eligible for parole after two years and three months.

The charge related to Foster bringing more than $300,000 into Australia, which he fraudulently
obtained from the Bank of the Federated State of Micronesia.

During the original hearing, the court was told Foster, who has previous convictions
for fraud, took out a $580,000 loan in 2006 to develop a Fijian tourist resort, but instead
used $306,772 of it to pay credit card debt and outstanding rent on his girlfriend's Gold
Coast home.

Last month, Foster's barrister Tony Glynn SC requested a reduction in Foster's jail
term, arguing the judge had sentenced on the basis of incorrect facts and that a reparation
order to pay back $214,000 should be set aside.

But a Queensland Court of Appeal judgment handed down today found the sentence was
not excessive considering Foster's long history of offences of dishonesty in many countries.

Neither had the sentencing judge erred in ordering Foster to pay back money that had
not been recuperated by the bank, as the bank's losses had been a direct result of the
money laundering, the judgment said.

AAP jmm/pjo/jfm/bwl

KEYWORD: FOSTER

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