Last year I noted that Paul Terroni had been refused bail in NSW after faking his own death, seeking the associated insurance and obtaining a false passport (albeit an improvement on the NZ scammer who cashed in on his own 'death' but chose to renew his existing pasport!).
The SMH today reports that Terroni has been sentenced in a NSW District Court to a maximum 23 months in jail (13 months on a fraud charge and 15 months on a passport offence). Although his minimum term reportedly expired two weeks ago, Terroni remains in custody pending sentencing on driving charges that apparently triggered his scam.
He appears to have been charged with driving offences, evading punishment by moving to Ecuador and there ostensibly drowning in a river in 2007. What better day for a faux demise than 1 April. His uncle obtained the death certificate, with Terroni sending that to Australia and snaffling a false passport used for his return to Sydney in 2008. There was an attempt to claim over $283,000 in life insurance, with his mother reportedly alleged to have tried to obtain his superannuation using the bogus death certificate.
Haesler J yesterday sentenced Terroni for for trying to obtaining money by deception and possessing a foreign passport not issued to him, noting that "to fake one's own death in the face of relatively minor criminal charges makes no sense to me". Terroni's barrister argued that his made what "can only be described as a disastrous life choice".
