A St Andrew's College old boy who robbed a bank has avoided jail and will serve his sentence in his parents' plush St Albans home.
George William Cowen, 20, was yesterday sentenced to 11 months home detention for the October 8 aggravated robbery of the St Martins Westpac bank.
The Christchurch District Court was told that although the robbery had not been motivated by gambling debts, Cowen's powerful gambling addiction had addled his thinking.
Cowen spent up to 100 hours a week making and losing thousands of dollars on the internet.
The court accepted that Cowen was impaired to the extent that when a man demanded money from him outside the Christchurch Casino, robbing a bank was his solution.
Problem Gambling Foundation representatives said Cowen's case was illustrative of an emerging side of problem gambling.
Cowen, who had played football for New Zealand age-group teams, yesterday told the court of the extent of his gambling addiction and the events that led to him donning a scarf and beanie and entering a bank with a barbecue lighter under his jersey.
Cowen told the court he played so much internet poker in his bedroom at his parents' St Albans house that he gave up university. Playing with savings direct credited to his credit card, Cowen was sleeping only four hours a day and some nights not bothering to sleep at all.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/4839260a11.html
Cos he came from a good home - no prison for this little shit!!
