Aristocrat ruins law career with hapless fraud (From This Is Local London)

Aristocrat ruins law career with hapless fraud

5:02am Saturday 21st October 2006 in

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A law student from one of the oldest aritocratic families in Britain escaped jail after committing "the worst attempt at forgery" ever seen by a court.

Andrew Curzon, a former Eton pupil and sixth in line to become the Honourable Viscount of Scarsdale, was given a nine-month suspended sentence last Friday after he tried to bank a cheque made out to a 75-year-old pensioner.

Kingston Crown Court heard that Curzon, 20, opened a letter containing a cheque for £117,533 that was made out to his elderly neighbour in Wimbledon Village, but delivered to his home by mistake.

Instead of giving the cheque to her - a payout from a pension fund that had matured - the student scrawled his name over the top and tried to deposit it into his own account at NatWest in Wimbledon Village.

Cashiers told him to come back in a week to check the funds had cleared but he was arrested on his return.

He told police in an interview that he had assumed the cheque was intended for his father and that he often put money into his bank account for other family members.

Curzon, who is studying for a law degree at University College, London, and had ambitions to become a barrister, pleaded guilty to forgery and using a false instrument at a hearing at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court in July.

Peter Binder defending, said Curzon suffered from a disorder resembling Asperger's Syndrome.

He said the student had been suffering from acute stress during exam week, which drove him to commit "impulsive actions".

"He needs help and understanding rather than condemnation, punishment and be subjected to ridicule," Mr Binder said.

"It is a unique feature of this case that this is likely to be one of the worst - if not the worst - attempt at forgery this court will ever see."

He added that the forgery was so shoddy the cashier might reasonably assume it was a practical joke.

"One other notable feature of this bizarre episode is that the defendant has no need for money. He comes from a privileged background and he is not in debt," he added.

Sentencing him, Judge Richard Southwell said that the episode had ruined Curzon's law career, whose family's ancestral seat, Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, spans 6,000 acres, and whose ancestor, Robert de Courson, arrived with William the Conqueror.

Judge Southwell said he would spare Curzon a jail term because he suffers from the condition - making the level of criminality lower than it would be for someone who doesn't have the disorder.

He pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and didn't receive any profit from his actions.

"It was a completely ham-fisted attempt that was bound to fail," he added.

The nine-month sentence was suspended for two years.

Judge Southwell also ordered Curzon to pay £105 costs and said he must return to court next April for a review hearing to see whether he has undergone successful treatment for his condition.