Repeat fraudster Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith is back in custody awaiting sentence after admitting four more offences – some of them while on release conditions after her jail term.
She appeared in the Christchurch District Court by video-link after being charged with offences late last year. She was remanded on bail but that ended when she was arrested for two more offences on Tuesday.
Judge David Saunders remanded her in custody for sentencing on March 29. He ordered a report on her suitability for home detention but indicated that seemed unlikely “given her history of prior offending”.
She had written a letter to the judge about getting bail for her sentencing remand, and about continuing her interim name suppression, but both were refused.
She said, “But there is…” before the video-link was cut off.
Smith admitted a charge of dishonestly using a document, and three charges of obtaining money by deception. She has also indicated she admits a fifth dishonesty charge but defence counsel Kiran Paima said there were still discussions with the police about the wording and whether it should be a joint charge.
On another charge she has admitted, there may be a disputed facts hearing on March 8 about whether the amount involved is $10,000 or $11,600.
The amounts involved in two of the other charges are $1400 and $1680.
Smith, 31, also known as Anna-Ria Melroy, had a substantial history of dishonesty offending which led to her being jailed for eight months last June.
By the time of her sentencing, she had convictions in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2016. She had struggled to complete electronically-monitored sentences and the Community Probation Service was recommending imprisonment.
She had admitted two fraud charges on that occasion. She used a made-up story of family woes to get a Kiwibank customer she had only just met to loan her $3000 and she got a 76-year-old woman to help pay for cheap airfares to Rarotonga for her by paying $495. She gave the money to associates.
Mr Paima said today that Smith had now acknowledged the background of her offending, including methamphetamine use for an extended period. She now said she had overcome that.
At her last appearance two weeks ago, she was granted interim name suppression because of the continuing effects of publication on her two children, but that order was discontinued today by Judge Saunders.
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