Robbery Faker Awaits Sentence
Illawarra Mercury
Thursday May 13, 1999
A Moruya woman who engineered a sham armed-robbery of her bridal boutique to get more attention from her husband, was warned yesterday she would be in jail if different charges had been laid.
Magistrate Paul Lyon made the comment after finding Carol Ann Stein guilty of staging a fake robbery on March 12, 1996, and dishonestly obtaining $4328 by deception through an insurance claim.
Mr Lyon said Stein's claim that she had been held up by two men - one a Koori armed with a blood-filled syringe - was extremely serious.
``She wasn't charged with making a false statement to police ... so I can't sentence her on that grave matter of falsely accusing some members of the Aboriginal community," he said.
``If the court was dealing with that, without hesitation the court would be sending her to full-time jail now."
At an earlier hearing, a witness gave evidence of helping Stein stage the fake robbery of her Moruya bridal shop.
Jeana Lea Wilson, of Pioneer Place, Nowra, told the court she had thought of Stein as a second mother before the incident.
However she claimed she had been manipulated into taking part in the sham. She and Stein had discussed the idea of a staged robbery the day before.
Yesterday Mr Lyon rejected defence claims the robbery was genuine and that Ms Wilson's evidence, as well as collaborative evidence given by her mother, was part of a conspiracy against Stein following a falling out between the women.
Mr Lyon stood the matter over to Moruya Local Court tomorrow for sentencing.
© 1999 Illawarra Mercury
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