sentence reduced after the Court of Appeal refused his application.

Damon Ray Burgess, 27, was convicted in November last year of uttering a forged cheque at the Shelly Bay MarketPlace, uttering a false cheque at the A1 supermarket, and obtaining $430 worth of cash and property by false pretences.

He was sentenced to four years each for counts one and two, and three and a half years on count three, to run concurrently.

Burgess was also charged, but cleared of housebreaking into Phillip Chadwick's Aubrey Estate home with Clarence Nicole Simmons on March 2 and stealing cash, $3,000 worth of jewellery, and a chequebook.

Burgess was represented by defence lawyer Victoria Pearman, who told the court that Burgess had been seeking to appeal his conviction and sentence, but now only sought to appeal his sentence.

Ms Pearman submitted that despite her client's extensive criminal record, he had only appeared before the court three times as an adult, the first time in 1994 -- as an 18-year-old -- when he was sentenced to two years for armed robbery. In 1999, Burgess was convicted of stealing a cheque book, forgery and several other dishonesty charges, for which he was sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Ms Pearman submitted that her client's two previous sentences had been relatively low, and there was nothing to warrant such a drastic jump in sentence.

Ms Pearman also held that Burgess continued in crimes of dishonesty after he first appeared in court as an adult, but said they were of a less grave nature.

She said that Burgess' co-accused, Mr. Simmons, had committed offences of a greater severity and that sentencing Burgess in respect of Simmons was wrong.

Several other submissions were made and Crown counsel Charmaine Scott was about to deliver her submissions when the appeal judges, President Sir James Astwood, Justice Phillip Clough, and Justice Lindsay Worrell said there was no need to continue and refused the appeal.

Sir James said: "If the facilities are available to you for counselling and treatment, take advantage of it.''