A Weston Creek serial charity scammer who prompted an ACT Assembly petition and has a Facebook page dedicated to his many community interactions has been freed to return to the community with a one month good behaviour bond.
Jason Thompson, 38, had been in custody for 44 days awaiting sentencing when he faced Magistrate Glenn Theakston in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday.
Thompson was sentenced on a series of charges including two counts of obtaining property by deception, providing a false name and address to police, and being in unlawful of property suspected to be stolen or unlawfully obtained.
Magistrate Theakston said that on two separate days in mid-May, Thompson had been doorknocking homes in Weston Creek begging for money, telling residents that he had "lost" a relative recently. On one day it was a son, on another, it was his mother.
Thompson appeared in court dressed in grey prison fatigues and flanked by Corrective Services officers as his Legal Aid solicitor told how the defendant had been involved in a car accident as a child and had suffered an acquired brain injury, and that his finances were controlled by the public trustee.
He was described in court by his solicitor as "an incredibly vulnerable man" who lives with his father and who lost his children after his partner had an affair with his brother.
Disgruntled members of the Weston Creek community have built a Facebook page called Jason Watch, which is used to detail Thompson's activities and voice their concerns about his activities, which includes doorknocking homes of elderly Weston residents late at night and in the early hours of the morning, soliciting for money.
Liberal MLA Giulia Jones, who lives in the area, joined the protest by generating a petition in the Legislative Assembly against the so-called "Weston Creek Scammer", noting his behaviour was "distressing many people in the community and many are reaching a point of significant frustration".
Mr Theakston described Thompson's 44 days in custody as "disproportionate to the level of offending" and released him after the rise of the court on Monday.
