A man who cashed a forged cheque has been jailed for a year.

Colin Simmons pleaded guilty at a previous court appearance to dishonestly receiving stolen goods in the form of the cheque and receiving $931 by cashing it on December 5 2011

Prosecutor Cindy Clarke told the earlier Magistrate’s Court hearing that Scorpio Construction boss Adlia Davy wrote a cheque for $931 to an employee, identified in the court as ‘C Barnett’.

However, the employee later returned to Mr Davy saying he had lost the cheque near the Esso gas station on Richmond Road.

Mr Davy went to cancel the cheque, but was told by the bank that it had been cashed on December 5.

The name on the cheque had been changed to C B Simmons. Bank records showed the cheque had been cashed by Simmons using a passport. Mr Davy said he did not employ Simmons.

When Simmons, 46, was arrested and questioned he claimed he had been approached by an unknown man and a woman who asked him to cash the cheque for them and offered to split the proceeds.

He told the court: “I knew it wasn’t my cheque, but I was desperate.”

Although a substance-abuse report had been ordered on Simmons, he said yesterday that he was not interested in participating in the Drug Court programme. Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner jailed him for a year.