Sydney  - A former Australian Supreme Court judge was sent to jail Friday for telling a Sydney court that a dead woman was behind the wheel of his car when it was snapped by a police speed camera.

Marcus Einfeld, 69, would serve at least two years for perjury after failing to evade a 77-Australian-dollar (50-US-dollar) speeding fine for the January 2006 traffic offence.

The millionaire lawyer and human rights activist was described by his defence lawyer as a "beacon of light, a living treasure and a man of honour."

He shocked his supporters by changing his plea to guilty a week before his trial began after two years of pledging to fight the charges.

"I would not even think of misleading a court," Einfeld protested after being charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice. "The suggestion that I have done so is hurtful because it contradicts everything I have always stood for."

Einfeld, the foundation president of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, identified the woman driving his car as Professor Teresa Brennan, who died in a hit-and-run accident in Florida in 2003.

When his account was challenged, Einfeld said he had been referring to a different Professor Brennan, who coincidentally had also died in a traffic accident after returning to her home in the United States after a visit to Australia.

He later changed his story, saying he was unsure who was driving the car but was certain he was not in Sydney the day the offence was committed. Credit card records showed that he was.

He then tried to implicate his 94-year-old mother, saying he was driving her car at the time and she could corroborate his statement.

The court characterized his fabrications as "elaborate and premeditated" and declared he had engaged in "deliberate, premeditated perjury" and "planned criminal activity."

Einfeld, once the Australian representative on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, was jailed for three years with a non-parole period of two years. (dpa)