A magistrate has told a Eurobodalla man completing drug rehab is not a shield to punishment for his crimes.
37-year-old David Robert Meade convicted of ripping off more than a quarter of a million dollars from numerous victims via a gold scam he operated on social media.
Batemans Bay Local Court told yesterday Meade targeted numerous victims including vulnerable people.
In one case he took just under $180,000 from an elderly man.
Meade’s lawyer Samantha Henry told the court her client had spent the past year in residential rehab in Canberra. She called for a community corrections order saying a prison sentence may put him backwards.
But Magistrate Doug Dick told Meade his job was to send a powerful message to the community and he doesn’t accept there was any other option than a custodial sentence.
He’s been jailed for a maximum 3 and a half years with a non-parole term of 18 months.
He was supported in court by his mother, other family and a officer from the Salvation Army. The heads of his family members dropped when his jail term was revealed.
Meade was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom by corrective services officers while
He’s also been ordered to repay $100,000…the maximum a local court can order.
