KEY POINTS:
A Tauranga mother took a car for a test drive and never returned it because it was "too hot to walk in summer".
She was then caught three days later sitting in the car at the supermarket, across the road from the same car yard she took it from.
Beneficiary Juanita Matenga, 33, pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawfully converting a motor vehicle when she appeared in Tauranga District Court.
About 11am on February 24, Matenga visited Mike Stevens Motors' car yard on Cameron Rd with her 5-year-old son.
After looking at several cars, she arranged to take a Mitsubishi Mirage, valued at $6000, for a test drive.
When she failed to return it the next day, police were called.
A car salesman found the car with Matenga in the driver's seat at the New World carpark across the road on February 27.
She handed over the keys and walked off, but police were able to track her because of documentation left in the back of the car.
When police spoke to her, Matenga admitted her wrongdoing and told them it was too hot to walk in summer and she needed to use the vehicle to get around.
Her lawyer, Tony Balme, argued that given this was Matenga's first dishonesty offence, community work was the appropriate sanction.
Judge Peter Rollo agreed and gave Matenga a sentence of 100 hours community work, which she will be able to convert into work training.
- Bay of Plenty Times
