A young conman

Stuff reports:

At 20 years old, Hamilton’s Andrew Colin George Jacobs is already a career conman with 40 convictions.

His modus operandi? Everything from lying to police to blackmail and forgery – basically anything to get a quick buck.

He owes more than $14,000 in reparations to his victims.

This week Jacobs was back before the courts and was jailed for five months for three charges of obtaining by deception and one of using a document for pecuniary advantage – three weeks after being imprisoned for 13 months for blackmail, in the High Court at Hamilton.

I like to believe in rehabilitation, and certainly many young people can turn from a life of crime – especially if they have drug or alcohol addictions.

However, earlier this month he was sent to prison for further fraud offending – including blackmail – after falsely telling a 17-year-old girl he had cancer in order to get part of her dead father’s estate.

He was sentenced to jail by Justice Gilbert on April 3, who at that stage was concerned about his criminal history of 36 convictions.

It was while on bail awaiting sentencing on those blackmail charges that Jacobs committed his latest offending, between December last year and January this year.

It involved him using an alias to buy a Toyota Altezza via Trade Me for $8350.

Jacobs forged a “nationwide bank” email confirming he had transferred funds into the victim’s account.

Jacobs doesn’t seem to be from a “disadvantaged” background, or be in a culture of drugs or violence. He just seems to be a greedy little c*** who has no regard for the people he rips off.

Hopefully he will dislike prison enough to change his ways. I’m not optimistic though.A