She was told by a judge her continued dishonesty and failure to abide by court orders meant she was on the brink of prison, and running out of excuses for her non-compliance.
“Your future is in your own hands,” Judge Tony Snell told Washbourne, who arrived at the Blenheim District Court today hoping for a further adjournment to a scheduled sentencing.
The 36-year-old, with 12 convictions since 2008, including five for theft since 2022, was given a stern telling off by the judge, who said any further delay would be “a waste of considerable resource chasing you”.
“This offending occurred while you were serving a sentence for dishonesty matters.
“That is alarming,” Judge Snell said.
He noted she had failed to report as required 72 hours from the earlier sentence of intensive supervision, and had completed none of the courses.
Her lawyer John Holdaway had sought an adjournment for completion of a pre-sentence report.
He said Washbourne suffered anxiety, and effort was needed to get to the heart of the offending.
“Unless we do that, the community will not be protected from the offending.”
The request was declined.
Judge Snell said Washbourne had failed to engage in the pre-sentence report process.
“Any further remand is futile because, in the end, you didn’t bother showing up,” he said.
Today, an at-times tearful Washbourne received a fresh sentence of intensive supervision,to be judicially monitored, plus 75 hours of community work for her latest “offending spree”, on four dishonesty charges she admitted earlier.
They involved the use of the bank card she obtained to buy goods and a charge she admitted today of breaching the earlier sentence of intensive supervision.
At 8pm on July 11, at 8pm a man misplaced his bank card after depositing money for his business at a central Blenheim ATM.
The next day, Washbourne used the card to buy $175 worth of food and groceries at a Blenheim dairy and takeaway.
A few minutes later she used the card twice about a minute apart to buy goods worth $275 from one dairy and then went to another dairy where she used the card again to buy $87 worth of items.
She then tried using the card to make a $1000 transaction, which the bank blocked.
Police said the fact she used the card so frequently over a short period showed she intended to use it as much as possible before the owner realised.
Reparation of $528 was sought to repay back, the victim, but Judge Snell said it was up to the bank to arrange that.
He said while a term of imprisonment was warranted, the court needed to step back and consider the consequences, including the potential impact on Washbourne’s children.
Judge Snell said a further sentence of intensive supervision was Washbourne’s “last chance” to improve her situation, but she needed to be willing to do that.
“If not, there will come a time when you will go to prison because there will be no other option.
“Your fate is in your hands and if you choose to put your head in the sand and don’t show up you will be back in court before you know it.” Judge Snell said.
Judge Snell denied a request for continued name suppression for Washbourne.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
