Snowballing lies catch up with drunk mum

A 38-year-old mother has been sentenced to supervision for falsely saying she was assaulted and burgled, claiming $3800 insurance, because she did not want her recently separated partner to know she had got "hammered" at a party.

Glenda Jane Wise, from Mt Maunganui, was caught out in a snowballing mass of lies that started after a drunken night when she fell over and broke her teeth.

Wise, who had never been in trouble with the law before, was sentenced to nine months' supervision when she appeared in the Tauranga District Court yesterday.

Defence lawyer Glenn Dixon asked for diversion after a guilty plea, but this was declined because her false claims had cost police substantial resources.

Wise and her partner separated in February, and soon after she went to a party and got "hammered", Mr Dixon said.

She fell and broke her teeth, and woke up the next morning remembering only fragments of the evening.

When she met her ex-partner, the father of her teenage children, she told a lie.

"She was concerned he would take a dim view of her behaviour," Mr Dixon said. But the first lie necessitated more lies, this time to police and AMI Insurance.

It was not long before Wise took stock of what she had done and admitted her false claims, although a police investigation also easily identified that she was at a party on the night, Mr Dixon said.

Judge Thomas Ingram said Wise seemed to otherwise be of good character.

"It seems to me you need help more than punishment."