18 December 2008

Nothing fake about ex-Qantas engineerÃ¢â¬â¢s prison term

SYDNEY Ã¢â¬' A man who faked his qualifications to perform maintenance checks on Qantas 747s and then falsified the character references he was relying on to get a lighter prison term has been sentenced to three years and five months behind bars.

Timothy McCormack, 26, told his superiors he had passed his aircraft maintenance exam and forged a licence that allowed him to work on the planes.

Judge Mark Marien said McCormack was employed by Qantas as a junior maintenance engineer, but after his bosses encouraged him to get his full licence he started performing unsupervised maintenance checks despite failing or not sitting the relevant exam.

McCormack pleaded guilty to 54 charges, including performing unauthorised checks, forging a licence and faking Civil Aviation Safety Authority examination results.

After one of his bosses noticed he was carrying out more senior work he became concerned McCormack was not getting paid enough and asked him to produce his qualifications so he could investigate whether he was entitled to back pay.

McCormack produced 10 fake exam documents and a forged licence.

Last month, McCormack produced four fake references to persuade the judge to give him a lighter sentence.

Source: Melbourne Age