Man drives off in $400k Bentley using dodgy cheque

HE had zero dollars in his bank account. So how on earth did Gerrard Tillema manage to convince a car dealer to let him drive off in a Bentley Continental?

A MAN who drove off in a luxury Bentley worth $423,000 after handing over a dodgy cheque, claimed he did so after walking past the dealership and being “blown away” by the car.

Gerrard Ian Tillema, 35, went to the Bentley Brisbane dealership in Fortitude Valley on June 19 with his father and took the 2014 Bentley Continental for a test drive.

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He signed a contract to buy the car for $423,000 and arrangements were made for him to deposit the money into the business’s bank account.

Tillema went to a Bank of Queensland branch and handed them a cheque to deposit the $423,000 into the company’s account.

He went back to the dealership on June 22 and handed staff a bank receipt for the deposit. Staff also checked the business bank accounts and confirmed the funds had been deposited.

Tillema drove off with the luxury car but later that day dealership staff received a call from the bank to say the cheque had been dishonoured.

The dealership hired a debt collector to find the vehicle which was found undamaged several days later in the Redland Bay Hospital car park.

Tillema was initially charged with fraud of more than $30,000 but in the Southport Magistrates Court yesterday the charge was downgraded to passing a valueless cheque.

He pleaded guilty to the new charge.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Glenn Whittle said when staff contacted Tillema, he told them he couldn’t talk as he was at the dentist.

Sgt Whittle said Tillema was found on July 24 with his father at the Bruce Lyton BMW dealership in Southport, making inquiries about purchasing a new BMW.

“He described his actions as stupid, stating he just wanted to something nice for his family,” he said.

“He stated there were no funds in his account.”

He said the vehicle was undamaged and had travelled approximately 400km since it was taken.

Solicitor Sam Jackson, from Bamberry Lawyers, said his client didn’t intend committing the offence and just walked past and saw the vehicle.

“He was blown away by it – he really just wanted to see it – and the sales staff at the shop were so accommodating.”

“The vehicle was recovered completely undamaged.

“There was no real loss to the complainant, just the 24 to 48 hours of stress that the owners of the dealership suffered in terms of not having the vehicle.”

Mr Jackson said his client was diagnosed with a heart defect as a child and suffered from bipolar disease.

Magistrate Bernadette Callaghan said it was a “most unusual” offence.

“It’s made very unusual by the fact that you've gone in and identified a very, very, very expensive car then wrote out a cheque to pay for it,” he said.

“It was behaviour that could only be described as delusional.”

Ms Callaghan said she accepted Tillema was remorseful and placed him on a nine month probation order.

Originally published as Man drives off in $400k Bentley using dodgy cheque