Two fake lawyers
The Herald reports:
The chief executive of a legal firm stepped down soon after it was discovered he did not have the law degree he claimed to have.
Michael Vukcevic left Auckland firm Baldwins, which specialises in intellectual property law, for “personal reasons”, according to a press release in November.
The 43-year-old is an experienced business leader who has worked closely with government ministers and agencies negotiating free-trade agreements in the Middle East.
A Herald investigation can reveal that Mr Vukcevic does not have a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) as stated on the curriculum vitae he submitted for the job two years earlier.
Pretty embarrassing that a major law firm didn’t check a claimed law degree for its chief executive.
Mr Vukcevic was previously on the board of Transparency International New Zealand, an anti-corruption agency dedicated to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in government and civil society.
Oh, the irony.
Stuff reports on another fake lawyer:
A serial conman with 184 convictions has been told a jail sentence is likely after he was found guilty of deception by impersonating a lawyer.
Brian Hunter, who was described by his own lawyer as a fantasist, yesterday clocked up convictions 183 and 184 after being found guilty of two charges of obtaining by deception in a judge-only trial in Napier District Court. …
Brian Damian Hunter, 55, now has 184 convictions. Nearly all involve dishonesty offending.
He was first convicted in Wellington in 1974.
He has received many non-custodial sentences, and was jailed in 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1998.
I think our three strikes law is set appropriately so that only serious violent or sexual crimes result in a strike offence, where your third strike is the maximum sentence without parole.
But I do wonder if we need something similar for the recidivist criminals who don’t beat, kill and rape – but do create victims and misery.
Maybe not three strikes for them, but 30 strikes or even 50 strikes? Basically a realisation that they have decided to remain a criminal permanently, so that any future offending will be an automatic jail term in order to protect the community.