An Australian judge has lied his way to a three year jail term after receiving a speeding ticket for driving at just 6mph over the limit. Owning up and paying the fine through the post would have cost $77 and the price of a stamp.
The sentence means Marcus Einfield will go on record as the first Australian judge to be sent to prison, following a bizarre case where he first blamed the ticket on a visiting American professor – subsequently found to be dead at the time of the incident – and then implicated his 92 year old mother in an attempt to beat the rap.
Judge Einfield before his fall from grace
Einfield pleaded guilty last week to perjury and perverting the course of justice, and was handed a sentence that will keep him behind bars until at least March 2011.
Formerly a citizen of impeccable standing, Einfield was founding president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and received an Order of Australia honour services to international affairs. He has also been voted an ‘Australian National Treasure’.