THE man who stole the identity of Bon Jovi guitarist. March 18th 2008

THE man who stole the identity of Bon Jovi guitarist Ritchie Sambora and defrauded $25 million has received a record jail sentence in Adelaide today.

Romeo Pacifico today showed no emotion as the District Court ordered he serve 16 years' jail.

While he noted the former concrete pumper was unlikely to reoffend, Judge Wayne Chivell said Pacifico's crimes were too serious for anything less than a 10-year non-parole period.

"These crimes constituted a deliberate, complex and sustained course of deception over more than four years," he said.

"They were premeditated and repetitive – it was a form of stealing, and stealing on a grand scale."

The sentence is the longest handed down for fraud in South Australian history.

It is heftier than the 14-year term imposed on pathological gambler Dennis Craig Telford, who stole $22 million from trucking magnate Alan Scott.

Pacifico's term also outstrips those imposed on million-dollar investment fraudster Frank Dubois, and on former Olympian Hamish Boyd McLachlan, who stole $500,000.

Between 1998 and 2002, Pacifico stole $25,639,133 from companies including GE Finance, BMW, the National Australia Bank, Bendigo Bank and St George Bank.

Then in 2007, while on bail for those offences, he attempted to defaud a further $71,000.

In sentencing, Judge Chivell said Pacifico – who pleaded guilty to 21 charges – used the Sambora name to "weave a complex web of deceit".

He said when Pacifico's once-successful concrete-pumping business became a "financial quagmire", he started "robbing Peter to pay Paul".

Pacifico's scheme involved claiming money for concrete pumps he either used as trade-ins or never bought in the first place.

The money was used to pay off his loans, to buy luxuries including four Ferrarri sports cars, and to "fund an expensive lifestyle".

"You may have felt, in this period, that you would repay everyone... you were wilfully deluding yourself," Judge Chivell said.

Pacifico will be eligible for parole in September 2017 – 10 years from the day he went into custody.