Local lady gets bank card and spends up
USING a bank card that wasn't hers has landed Richelle Marie Otway with 12 months' probation.
Otway was charged on February 10 for possessing the Visa card after it was used at the Reef Gateway Hotel.
The actual owner of the card lived in the Cannonvale residence that Otway moved into and she received the card in the mail.
The owner was overseas at the time but reported it to police.
Otway was arrested after clocking up $853.47 on the card by using paywave.
She was also charged for applying for a number of bank cards under a man's name between February 8 and 29 this year.
She told police she didn't know she had used the card without authorisation and that she was unaware it was an offence.
Duty lawyer Cleo Rewald said Otway had been going through a tough stretch in her personal life at the time of the offence, including the loss of her partner.
Magistrate Ron Muirhead said "I believe probation is the appropriate punishment".
In addition to the 12 months' probation she was ordered to pay $853.47 in restitution.
