Twist in cricket fraud hearing

THE woman at the centre of a sexting scandal involving former Australian cricket captain Tim Paine has been warned by a Hobart magistrate to “fully engage” with an unrelated stealing matter.

On Thursday, 48-year-old Renee Ferguson appeared in the Hobart Magistrates Court via video link, charged with stealing thousands of dollars worth of cash and memberships from Cricket Tasmania, where she previously worked as a receptionist.

Ms Ferguson’s lawyer, Greg Barns SC, told Magistrate Michael Daly he was no longer instructed to act as counsel in the case, asking to be excused from proceedings.

Ms Ferguson (inset) told the court in April that she had accepted the outcome of a sentence indication hearing, which would have seen her serve a term of home detention.

Mr Daly told Ms Ferguson on Thursday the next step was to sentence her, “in light of the order you’d accepted”.

But she told Mr Daly she in fact wanted to maintain her plea of not guilty – and was waiting to hear back from an alternative lawyer, Garth Stevens.

Mr Daly said the matter would then need to go to trial – instructing Ms Ferguson she needed to attend court in person in Hobart, and “fully engage” with proceedings. He noted she had repeatedly not attended court in person.

“I’m not prepared any longer to deal with this matter remotely. You’ll need to fully engage with the procedures of this court from now onwards. Understand that?” he said.

“There’s a lot of work that’s needed to be done in order to get you to fully engage.

“You need to make this a priority and I don’t want to leave you in any doubt about what you need to do. You need to appreciate the reality of your position at present.”

Mr Daly adjourned the case until next Friday, saying Ms Ferguson would need to have selected and instructed a new lawyer by that time.