Woman dodges prison after stealing 300 pieces of mail, including credit cards, to get 'P' money

A 22-year-old woman who stole 300 pieces of mail, including credit cards and drivers licences, has been sentenced to home detention.

Billie May Graham appeared at the Auckland District Court this afternoon on 28 charges of fraud and one count of breaching a protection order.

Graham, who now lives in Napier, previously admitted taking 300 items of NZ Post mail to get access to others people's bank accounts.

According to court documents, she used at least six victims' credit cards, directly accessed people's computer systems for dishonest purposes and received three driver's licences.

At sentencing this afternoon, Graham's lawyer Siobhan Buckley said methamphetamine had "wrecked havoc" on her client's life.

She started using at 13-years-old with drugs and alcohol use being "the norm" in her childhood home.

However, since falling pregnant Graham had "genuinely made a change" - she'd moved out of Auckland to get away from people who enabled her offending and drug abuse, had a partner and had attempted to get herself enrolled in counselling programmes.

Graham also had her first child taken away from her because of her drug use.

"She's already lost a child ... and that's certainly not something that she wants for her daughter to be born this year," Buckley said.

The lawyer said Graham accepted her crimes and knew if she breached any home detention or bail conditions, she would likely be sent to prison where she would have her child taken away from her.

Judge David Mather said Graham had a history of offending which went back some five years and included a range of convictions, but most were for dishonesty charges.

But while the impact on her victims was severe and involved "significant amounts of money" Judge Mather accepted Graham would not be able to get the help she needed behind bars.

He said she should be credited for getting away from associates in Auckland to live with family in Napier.

"That offers some hope that you might be able to break the cycle of addiction and offending but it won't be easy."

He sentenced Graham to six months' home detention with special conditions.

"It won't be prison today, but you came close," Judge Mather told Graham.