Perjurer avoids a term in prison
A man has avoided being jailed for repeatedly lying during a Warden’s Court hearing “by the narrowest of margins”, a District Court Judge said.
Richard Michael Seifert, 45, was sentenced to a 12-month suspended jail term in the Kalgoorlie District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to perjury in a civil proceedings.
The court heard Seifert and another man, who has been accused of the same charge, were challenged by Gerald Brewer over the pegging of a mining tenement in the Goldfields.
In response, Seifert signed an affidavit, including a photograph, which he claimed showed he correctly pegged out the tenement before Mr Brewer.
During a hearing in the Kalgoorlie Warden’s Court on December 9, 2011, he repeatedly lied about his pegging while giving evidence and under cross-examination.
However, Warden Greg Benn found Mr Seifert had lied while giving evidence and made crucial errors in his pegging and awarded the tenement to Mr Brewer.
Mr Benn ordered that evidence from the hearing be sent to the police.
