Windfall for kindergarten from woman’s fraud
A judge has turned a woman’s fraudulent raffle into an instant fundraiser for the Sumner Kindergarten.
The woman, Kelly-Anne Chalmers, 43, will have to do 80 hours of community work.
She has also spent a night in custody after being arrested yesterday when the police located her after she failed to turn up at the Christchurch District Court.
But the Sumner Kindergarten will get a $50 windfall when the police hand over the money they took off Chalmers in the incident at New Brighton Mall on March 9.
Chalmers was brought before Judge Tony Couch in court this morning to plead guilty to charges of breaching her bail and dishonestly using a document.
Police said Chalmers and an associate – who has not been charged – were in the New Brighton Mall.
They had a home made poster advertising a raffle draw, and were going from shop to shop selling raffle tickets for the Sumner Kindergarten from a book they had.
They had sold about 25 tickets at $2 each.
When police checked with the Sumner Kindergarten, they found it had no knowledge of Chalmers and her associate selling the tickets and they had no raffle running.
Defence counsel Richard Peters said Chalmers had been naïve and trusting and had told police someone else had asked her to sell the tickets for them. However, she had indicated she wanted to plead guilty. She had since gone back to the shops and apologised.
“An acknowledgement of wrong-doing goes a long way,” said Judge Couch.
He ordered Chalmers to do 80 hours of community work and took up the police suggestion for the money that was fraudulently obtained to be paid to the Sumner Kindergarten anyway.
Category: News
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