Barrister turns himself in after stealing 79 cents from fountain 20 years ago

An Australian barrister who stole 79 cents from a wishing fountain on the Gold Coast has turned himself in 20 years after being caught for the offence.

Photo: Alamy

By Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney

10:43AM BST 18 Apr 2012

Simon Matters, now a barrister in Melbourne, was reportedly "highly embarrassed" about taking the coins as a 19-year-old in 1992.

He apparently grabbed the loose change, including some now defunct 2-cent coins, during a holiday at Surfers Paradise.

Mr Matters subsequently returned home to Melbourne and entered a career in the law.

Almost two decades later, he turned himself in to Queensland police and appeared before the Southport Magistrates' Court on charges of stealing and failing to appear in court.

The Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper reported that the Chief Magistrate, Ron Kilner, accepted Mr Matters' plea of guilty. The court ordered that Mr Matters not be punished and no conviction be recorded on his criminal record.

Mr Matters, 38, became a lawyer in 2002 and appears regularly in a range of Victorian courts, mainly in commercial and property cases. His page on a site for Victorian barristers says he wrote a law article in 1997 titled "Anything You Don't Say May Be Given In Evidence: Protecting The Interests of Justice or Emasculating a Fundamental Right?".
Mr Matters could not be contacted today.
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