Jail for Oz judge who didn’t want to pay Rs 2,600 speeding fine

Marcus Einfield, voted a national living treasure in 1997, is the first Australian judge to be sent to prison; has since begged for forgiveness

Jail for Oz judge who didn't want to pay Rs 2,600 speeding fine

Marcus Einfield, voted a national living treasure in 1997, is the first Australian judge to be sent to prison; has since begged for forgiveness

Breaking a two-year silence, 69-year old Marcus Einfield, the first Australian judge, retired or serving, to
be sent to jail, spoke of remorse and a desire to rebuild his reputation.

In an interview recorded before his sentencing last Friday, Einfield tried to defend his integrity as a basically honest man who made a "mistake" by lying.

Voted a "national living treasure" in 1997, Einfield has lost his title as Queen's Counsel, the Order of Australia honour, his reputation and will spend at least two years in jail with the possibility of also forfeiting his A$200,000 (Rs 69.5 lakh)-a-year pension.

fall from grace: Marcus Einfield will spend at least two years in jail

Sentencing Einfield, who pleaded guilty last year to perjury and subverting the course of justice, Justice Bruce James, who set a two-year non parole period, said the former judge would be held in protective custody and separated from mainstream prisoners because "he had been a lawyer and a judge".

Einfield was a founding president of the Human Rights Commission.

Handing down the sentence on Friday, Justice James said Einfield's "deliberate premeditated perjury" was "part of a planned criminal activity".

Einfield's silver Lexus car was photographed on a speed camera on January 8, 2006, driven at a speed of 60-km/h in a 50-km/h zone in a Sydney suburb. He faced a fine of A$77 and the loss of three demerit points.

Justice James said one likely motive for trying to avoid the fine was that Einfield feared the extra points would take him close to losing his driving licence.

In a scathing indictment, The Australian newspaper editorialised yesterday: "It is impossible to excuse Einfield's behaviour. As a retired judge his actions were an affront to the rule of law that could not have gone unpunished.

"But it is hard not to feel sorry for a man who discovered only in old age what most of us learn in childhood that all Australians are equal before the law, and none is more equal than the others"

Quite a difference, obviously, between the Australian penal situation and our own, in which the privileged are more equal than the others.

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