A MAGISTRATE has refused to suppress the details surrounding a woman charged with defrauding a freight company of a “large amount of money”.
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Linda Gaye Woods was visibly upset when she appeared in Tamworth Local Court for the second time on eight dishonesty or proceeds of crime charges.
According to court documents, Woods is accused of “whiting out bank details and photocopying the document intending it to be used to induce some person to accept it as genuine” in order to obtain a financial advantage by “electronic funds from Freight Specialists”.
Woods’ solicitor Yvonne Phillipos said she was instructed to make an application for a non-publication order “to save embarrassment”.
“This matter involves a local company,” she told the court, adding the company delivers nationwide.
Ms Phillipos said they were concerned any publication of the matter could “affect their current sales”.
Magistrate Roger Prowse said the court needed to have the power to make any such order, but under the act, private interest couldn’t be the deciding factor.
He said the public interest “is the guiding principle” in the justice system and the public interest verses the interest of the public was a balancing exercise but one where open justice prevailed in this instance.
“The public have a right to know what goes on in the court,” he said. “I decline to make an order.”
The public have a right to know what goes on in the court. I decline to make an order.
- Magistrate Roger Prowse
Woods is yet to enter a plea to charges of making a false document to obtain a financial advantage, six counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and one charge of dealing with property that’s suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
The case has been referred to the DPP because of the sum of money involved.
The first allegation occurred between April 8, 2011 and August 3, 2016, in Tamworth.
Police allege the six counts of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage occurred between April, 2011, and August, 2016, at different times when Woods, did by deception, steal money through fraudulent means.
Woods, 46, was charged in January in Tamworth after an investigation by Fairfield detectives, but Mr Prowse said the charges lacked detail and were “so shoddily prepared they won’t be going far”.
Woods remains on bail to report to police three times a week and will return to court in April.
Breanna Chillingworth
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
Northern Daily Leader Senior Crime and Court Reporter
