A ‘dislike of being with other offenders’ was Cameron Jones excuse for failing to carry out 200 hours community work, sentenced after a 2020 conviction for theft. He is now in the company of many offenders, serving a four year term of imprisonment for fraud after using multiple false identities to swindle banks and finance companies, primarily to fund his purchase of Alfa Romeo cars.
The High Court dismissed Jones complaint on appeal of double counting, claiming his four years’ imprisonment included penalty for failing to do community work, itself an earlier penalty.
Evidence was given of Jones architecture degree left unfinished when he left to work for over a decade at a major bank.
Aware of bank processes for granting loans, he perpetrated a series of identity theft scams over a nearly three year period, ending early 2025.
Police obtained a notebook marked with Jones’ fingerprints containing full personal details of some twenty-five people: names, dates of birth, drivers’ licence numbers and some addresses.
Some of these names were used to create false driver licences and passports, with each carrying Jones’ photo.
The court was told he used false identities on three occasions to take out loans for the purchase of upmarket Alpha Romeos. Loans were not repaid.
One of the frauds was uncovered only after he received a speeding ticket.
In addition, Jones created false email accounts and fabricated bank account details to get credit cards in false names.
Victims’ losses totalled more than $150,000.
In the High Court, Justice Boldt dismissed Jones' appeal against his four year sentence.
Jones is now aged 42.
There is nothing in Jones' background or upbringing to explain or to reduce culpability for his criminal behaviour, justifying a reduced sentence, he ruled.
And there was no double counting.
The trial judge had the choice of vacating the earlier un-performed community work sentence and then re-sentencing Jones on the earlier 2020 theft charge, or adding time to Jones' sentence for the subsequent identity frauds.
Either route achieved the same result, Justice Boldt said.
Jones v. Police – High Court (24.02.26)
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