Dud cheques land woman in dock

"She would very much like the opportunity to apologise..." Turitea Bolstad

A woman used bad cheques to buy close to $5000 in goods, including groceries, cigarettes, a laptop computer and printer.

Over a seven day period, Kimberly Charlotte Anne Kelsall handed over 19 cheques to pay for items at various businesses in New Plymouth that she knew would bounce due to a lack of funds. The summary of facts said on June 22 at 10.20am, Kelsall was at Pak ‘n Save supermarket in New Plymouth.

She walked around the store and loaded groceries into the trolley, totalling $603.31. She then presented a BNZ cheque in her name as payment, along with photo identification.

‘‘The defendant returned to the store a further five times over the following few days, again presenting her personal BNZ cheques as payment for groceries, cigarettes, alcohol and gift cards. These further five purchases totalled $816.00,’’ the summary said.

The cheques bounced due to there being no funds in Kelsall’s bank account. The next day, Kelsall was at the BP petrol station in Moturoa, where she purchased fuel and cigarettes valued at $96.95. To pay for the items, she presented a $200 cheque, for which she received change of $103 in cash.

She went back to the same petrol station three more times in the subsequent days, using cheques to pay for cigarettes and fuel.

During a return visit to the store, she was declined service because by that time the bank had dishonoured all of her previous cheques. On June 24, Kelsall went to the Mason Appliances store in New Plymouth, where she purchased a 49 inch Panasonic LCD television for $800 with a cheque, which later bounced.

On the same day, Kelsall went to Warehouse Stationery at The Valley in Waiwhakaiho, where she bought a laptop computer and cover, a cellphone, USB sticks, stationery items and a mobile topup voucher. The items were worth $1154.72. She left the store and came back two hours later to buy a printer and table worth $312. The cheques she tendered for payment again were dishonoured.

Kelsall also went to Briscoes where she purchased $222 in goods with another of her dud cheques.

On June 25, the defendant went to The Warehouse in New Plymouth and bought $60 worth of clothing and DVDs using a cheque, which was also dishonoured.

Bad cheques were also used to buy food and cigarettes from the city’s New World supermarket.

In total, $4936.90 in goods were fraudulently purchased by Kelsall.

Yesterday, the 33-year-old appeared in the New Plymouth District Court and pleaded guilty to 19 charges of using a document.

Kelsall’s lawyer Turitea Bolstad told the court her client had started to pay back reparation to some of the victims of her offending. She also asked for the case to be referred to restorative justice.

‘‘She would very much like the opportunity to apologise to these people,’’ Bolstad said.

Kelsall was convicted and remanded on bail to reappear for sentencing on November 3.

Judge Garry Barkle ordered a full-sentence report be prepared and referred the case to restorative justice.