Courtney Horata Williams, 37, has a criminal history littered with dishonesty offences and this week she appeared in the Dunedin District Court on yet another.
Along with a shoplifting charge, the defendant had admitted forging a glowing reference from her landlord to secure her next tenancy — a fully furnished home in Vauxhall.
In reality, she had been evicted from her last rental property and forged the landlord’s signature to access her bond.
To further push her case for the new home, she lied about her income and told the 63-year-old owner her parents were terminally ill and she wanted to live in his property to be closer to them.
Williams claimed her boyfriend — who was actually a meth-addicted gang associate — was receiving a lucrative wage from a false job as the captain of a fishing boat.
The landlord wanted to verify the information so asked for the prior landlord’s contact details.
Williams provided a fake phone number and created an email in their name that was linked to her.
She purported to be the landlord over email, strengthening her claims of good character.
The Vauxhall homeowner, believing he had a good picture of who Williams was, rented the house to her.
He had gone overseas so the property was fully furnished with all of his belongings, the court heard.
While Williams lived there, chattels went missing, the address was not maintained, damage was caused, rent was not paid and eventually she was evicted.
The owner claimed he suffered a loss of $27,000.
The defendant was not charged with theft in relation to the tenancy as the loss could not definitively be attributed to her.
A tenancy tribunal decision ordered Williams to pay $6078, the court heard.
The defendant told police she was surrounded by ‘‘poor influences’’ at the time and lied because she had to provide for her children.
This week at Williams’ sentencing, counsel Andy Belcher said his client lied to get into the house, but not with the intention of ripping off the owner.
‘‘There’s no proof about who took those things,’’ the lawyer said.
He accepted there was ‘‘some sophistication’’ to the offending and ‘‘a fair degree of dishonesty involved’’.
‘‘She promises not to get into any more trouble,’’ Mr Belcher said.
Judge Emma Parsons highlighted the impact on the victim whose trust in people was ‘‘completely shattered’’.
‘‘Had he known the true situation about your past, he would’ve never offered you his home,’’ the judge said
She noted Williams had a criminal history featuring mostly dishonesty offences and was assessed as posing a medium risk of reoffending.
Judge Parsons sentenced Williams to six months’ home detention and ordered her to pay reparation of $172 for an unrelated theft from Kmart.
