Convicted fraudster Ann-Marie Kathrine Smith will spend 11 days in custody ahead of her Christchurch District Court sentencing, after failing to appear on Wednesday.
She was taken into custody at the Court House yesterday after arranging a voluntary appearance, and was then remanded in custody for sentencing on May 9.
Judge Gary MacAskill refused bail for Smith on two charges of obtaining $3495 from different victims by deception in incidents well over a year ago.
Smith had contacted her defence counsel Kirsten Gray on Wednesday to say she was at Christchurch Hospital, but the judge that day described the medical certificate provided as “effectively useless”.
It was the third time 30-year-old Smith had used medical reasons to ask for court appearances to be excused. Her sentencing had been delayed to Wednesday to give her time to get together the money to repay her victims.
Judge MacAskill said he was satisfied the sentencing had been unnecessarily delayed and no further delay was excusable.
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