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A fresh warrant has been issued for the arrest of Simone Anne Wright, who is in Australia, and police now believe they know where she is.
Wright is the 40-year-old partner of a man already in custody in New Zealand facing 60 charges.
Judge Tony Couch issued the warrant at the request of the police in the Christchurch District Court today.
The new charges are 11 frauds totalling $77,173, all allegedly committed jointly with her partner, Paul James Bennett, 53. Ten of the charges refer to obtaining funds by deception, but one refers to a motorcycle.
The offences are alleged to have been committed in 2007 and 2008 in Whangarei, Auckland, New Plymouth, Taupo, Palmerston North, Cust in rural Canterbury, Naseby in Central Otago, and Invercargill.
Police got an arrest warrant for her in December when they laid a charge alleging that she had stolen a $145,000 yacht at Paihia in the Bay of Islands in 2015.
That charge has not led to her returning from Australia so far.
Bennett faced 60 charges including one of stealing the yacht, thefts, frauds, and causing people to act on forged documents, involving a total of $567,000. Police also charged him with indecent assaults on a 15-year-old girl and supplying her with the class B drug MDMA, or ecstasy.
Bennett was deported from Australia and arrested when he arrived at Christchurch International Airport in May 2016. He has been in custody since then and denies the charges. He is due to appear in the Christchurch District Court again on Friday.
When the yacht theft charge was laid against Wright, her address was given as “Australia”.
That address remains on the 11 new charges laid today, but police prosecutor Sergeant Iain Patton told Judge Couch: “Police are aware of a more definite location where she does reside.”
He said the police were seeking an arrest warrant “in lieu of summons”.
That would mean she could be arrested as soon as she were found, if she were in New Zealand.
Sergeant Patton said the police were already liaising with the Australian police, and the issue of the new warrant would allow them to “progress matters in both jurisdictions”.
Judge Couch granted the warrant.
The post Fresh warrant for woman in Australia appeared first on Courtnews.co.nz.
