Matthew Perrin was today sentenced to 8 years gaol with a non-parole period of 4 years for forgery and fraud charges arising from a bank loan secured against his family home.

That strikes me as a hefty sentence for a prisoner with no criminal history.  It is a very strong signal to "white collar" crooks and their hangers on - the law takes fraud and forgery offences very seriously.

Mr Perrin's defence team argued (credibly I would say) that at the time of his forgery and fraud he had no intent to permanently deprive the CBA of the money it loaned him.  In any case, his offending boiled down to forging one signature to borrow against the value of his family home.

Now turn your mind to The AWU Scandal.  Calculate the costs of enquiries, investigations, court and royal commission hearings, parliamentary time, destroyed careers, bashings - and still not one cent of the ill-gotten Leighton shareholders money returned.

Those who haven't fessed up yet should - on the Matthew Perrin scale - be looking at very serious gaol time indeed.