Expensive Wines Part Of Shopping Binge - Court
Illawarra Mercury
Wednesday September 12, 2007
POLICE were searching a Warrawong woman's home for items allegedly bought using fraudulent credit cards when a courier arrived with a parcel containing two bottles of Penfolds Grange worth over $1000, a court heard yesterday.
The wine was added to the extensive list of goods Roberta Lila Lawrence was accused of buying using the details of unsuspecting credit card holders.Lawrence's 61 fraud charges were adjourned to September 25 yesterday in Wollongong Local Court. Police allege the 41-year-old went on a spending spree worth more than $22,000 between January 2006 and July 2007 despite being on bail for similar charges at the time.She received a six-month suspended sentence in June for those charges. However, during the same month she was charged with obtaining items by financial deception.Documents tendered to the court said in addition to purchasing two bottles of Australia's most expensive wine, Lawrence, of Northcliffe Dr, also bought televisions, DVD players, a video recorder, car parts, sports shoes, mobile phones, two tickets to the Anthony Mundine-Danny Green boxing match, eight tickets to a 50 Cent concert, an MP3 player, gym equipment, a PlayStation 3 and groceries.Lawrence allegedly used at least seven credit cards and tested the cards by making small payments to Integral Energy.Police said the majority of the alleged victims lived outside the Illawarra and had no idea their details were being used.
© 2007 Illawarra Mercury
