Stephanie West remains in Emu Plains Correctional Centre near Sydney, serving out a four-year sentence for a raft of fraud offences committed when she was employed by an Armidale glass business.

She appeared in Armidale District Court on Monday and chose to represent herself, after the Crown lodged a freezing order to recover money found during an investigation of her bank accounts.

The court heard investigators had discovered West had more than $11,000 in a St George bank account and almost $8000 in a Community Mutual account.

“The application is that those monies be forfeited as I understand it,” Judge Stephen Hanley said.

When asked if she had received the paperwork in relation to the application, West said she hadn’t received any documents in prison.

A Crown prosecutor said documents had been sent to the prison after a judge in Lismore made an interim order, following a mention of the case in Grafton.

After West chose not to contest the freezing order, Judge Hanley ordered $18,872 be forfeited from the two accounts to the Crown.

“Yes, that’s fine, thank you,” West replied.

West was jailed in Armidale District Court in September 2014 for four years after she was convicted of 19 fraud and dishonesty offences.

During a five-year crime spree, West forged 89 cheques, ripping close to $900,000 from her employer, siphoning them into her bank account to fund a gambling addiction.

West’s offending unravelled when her employers raised suspicions about missing funds from the business accounts and called in Armidale detectives to investigate, culminating in 71 charges against her.

West won’t be eligible for parole until March 2017.