AN ARMIDALE woman has backflipped and admitted to an elaborate $2.2 million fraud, just days into her Sydney trial.
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The Leader can reveal Sandra Henri Edmonds has pleaded guilty to two fraud offences, accused of taking $2,224,667.50 from 18 victims in Armidale.
The Armidale conveyancer was just four days into her three-month trial in the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney, when she reversed her pleas to guilty.
Edmonds was standing trial, accused of dozens of fraud and dishonesty charges, relating to 18 victims who had been defrauded of money ranging from $25,000 to $370,000 each.
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The jury of 12 was set to sit for 12 weeks to hear evidence from the victims and prosecution witnesses, but after hearing from four witnesses, Edmonds changed her pleas and the jury was discharged by Judge Peter Whitford this week.
The charges were withdrawn by the Crown who laid two new charges, alleging she defrauded 18 individual victims of more than $2.2 million.
In a new indictment presented to court, Edmonds admitted to deception between July 16, 2014, and February 15, 2018, in Armidale, by dishonestly obtaining financial advantage using credits to bank accounts and cash totalling $2,224,667.50.
She also admitted to making false or misleading statements in materials to obtain the advantage between March 31, 2015 and August 26, 2015, in Armidale.
Judge Whitford ordered Edmonds to remain on bail ahead of another mention of the case in the Sydney court.
The Leader revealed Edmonds arrest in July 2018 by Armidale detectives.
Strike Force Amaranthus had claimed Edmonds, an Armidale conveyancer, had masterminded an investment scam.
It had been the police case that Edmonds falsely represented an investment opportunity to victims and deceived them into handing over sums of cash, taking the money for herself.
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