Top court overrules suspended sentence, orders four years jail for fraudster

The Supreme Court has set aside a two-year suspended jail sentence for forgery and money laundering as inadequate and ordered the defendant be jailed for four years, the Cyprus News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The defendant had been found guilty of defrauding his brother of €383,304 through impersonation and forgery during transactions at the land and surveys department in 2014.

A court handed down sentences of two years in jail for the offences, to run concurrently, and then suspended them.

The Supreme Court said that even though the offences carried penalties of up to 14 years, the court had failed to distinguish between the severity of the different offences and hand down sentences accordingly.

It had also over-simplified the events, failing to refer to the fact that the defendant had used forged powers of attorney to take more than €100,000 in compensation for compulsory purchase of his brother’s land.

“We encourage brief court statements but with this never leading to inadequate and defective court decisions,” it said, adding that it regretted that this had occurred in this case.