December 18, 2003
A BOGUS high roller who fooled Melbourne's Crown Casino into honouring a forged $2.3 million cheque was jailed today for at least three years.
The Victorian County Court heard the cheque, made with the use of chemicals and a computer, was approved after senior management overrode staff concerns that the only identification shown to them was a photocopy of a passport.
County Court Judge Stuart Campbell today said 37-year-old Sam Yi-Shen Huang had set out to dupe the casino with an audacious scheme.
At an earlier pre-sentencing hearing, Legal Aid barrister George Georgiou criticised the casino, saying that if its staff had exercised an ounce of caution his client would never have been allowed near a gambling table.
Huang, who pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining property by deception, had been diagnosed as pathologically addicted to gambling.
Huang, with dual Australian and Taiwanese citizenship, had told casino staff his passport was in Sydney to be used for a property deal.
But, said Mr Georgiou, that was an "implausible" explanation, given that Huang had been taken straight from Melbourne Airport by a Crown limousine after arriving from Taiwan on January 4, ostensibly as part of a gambling junket.
A shift manager refused to honour the cheque, but upper management stepped in and endorsed it, the court heard.
Judge Campbell noted there was no statement in the court depositions from the "unnamed person" who approved the fake cheque.
Concern grew after Huang left the casino with $820,000 in cash after losing $1.3 million at a baccarat table.
He then flew to the Gold Coast and continued gambling at Jupiters and Treasury casinos.
Detectives later caught up with him at his home in Nerang, Queensland, in July.
In sentencing, Judge Campbell told Huang: "The fact is that you set out to dupe the casino to indulge your pathological gambling addiction and you were prepared to go to great lengths in order to be able to achieve that result.
He added: "It can be seen that this was an audacious scheme, to obtain the use of monies to gamble at a very high level.
"It required forethought, planning and no doubt not a little expertise in the falsification of both the cheque and passport details."
Judge Campbell sentenced Huang to a maximum four and a half years and fixed a minimum term of three years. @@@@
A BOGUS high roller who fooled Melbourne's Crown Casino into honouring a forged $2.3 million cheque was jailed today for at least three years.
The Victorian County Court heard the cheque, made with the use of chemicals and a computer, was approved after senior management overrode staff concerns that the only identification shown to them was a photocopy of a passport.
County Court Judge Stuart Campbell today said 37-year-old Sam Yi-Shen Huang had set out to dupe the casino with an audacious scheme.
At an earlier pre-sentencing hearing, Legal Aid barrister George Georgiou criticised the casino, saying that if its staff had exercised an ounce of caution his client would never have been allowed near a gambling table.
Huang, who pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining property by deception, had been diagnosed as pathologically addicted to gambling.
Huang, with dual Australian and Taiwanese citizenship, had told casino staff his passport was in Sydney to be used for a property deal.
But, said Mr Georgiou, that was an "implausible" explanation, given that Huang had been taken straight from Melbourne Airport by a Crown limousine after arriving from Taiwan on January 4, ostensibly as part of a gambling junket.
A shift manager refused to honour the cheque, but upper management stepped in and endorsed it, the court heard.
Judge Campbell noted there was no statement in the court depositions from the "unnamed person" who approved the fake cheque.
Concern grew after Huang left the casino with $820,000 in cash after losing $1.3 million at a baccarat table.
He then flew to the Gold Coast and continued gambling at Jupiters and Treasury casinos.
Detectives later caught up with him at his home in Nerang, Queensland, in July.
In sentencing, Judge Campbell told Huang: "The fact is that you set out to dupe the casino to indulge your pathological gambling addiction and you were prepared to go to great lengths in order to be able to achieve that result.
He added: "It can be seen that this was an audacious scheme, to obtain the use of monies to gamble at a very high level.
"It required forethought, planning and no doubt not a little expertise in the falsification of both the cheque and passport details."
Judge Campbell sentenced Huang to a maximum four and a half years and fixed a minimum term of three years. @@@@
