Mum told to stop offending

A TOOWOOMBA woman trying to get her children back from the Department of Child Safety will have to stop offending to give herself any chance.

The 26-year-old, who is not named so as to protect the identity of the children, appeared before Toowoomba Magistrates Court to plead guilty to six offences including twice failing to report to police as part of her bail conditions.

Her other offences included receiving a wallet stolen by an associate from a Toowoomba store; stealing a bottle of bourbon from a Ruthven St liquor mart; and a public nuisance offence arising from her yelling obscenities at staff of a Middle Ridge shopping centre who accused of shoplifting.

She had also pleaded guilty to breaching a domestic violence order by having contact with her former partner who had shown up at her home.

The court heard the mother of three had been subject to parole at the time having been released from jail in January.

However, a Probation and Parole officer told the court that other than the woman’s offending she had responded well to orders.

Her solicitor John Davis said his client’s three children had been with the department for two years and she hoped to get them back next year.

Magistrate Catherine Pirie accepted the offending was at the lower end of the scale but warned the woman not to re-offend.

“The last time you breached a probation order it turned into a jail term,” she said.

The woman was placed on nine months probation to include random testing for illicit drugs.