Ex-model found guilty of bag theft
Judge says Sophia Nash ‘acted dishonestly’ in stealing fake Dior handbag from op shop
Former Kiwi model Sophia Nash has been found guilty of stealing a $20 fake Dior handbag from a Mt Eden charity shop. Judge Nicola Mathers, delivering her reserved decision yesterday morning, said she found Nash to be an “unsatisfactory witness” who gave unreliable evidence.
The judge said Nash “acted dishonestly and she had no belief that her actions in taking the bag were lawful”.
Nash was charged with stealing the handbag from the Mt Eden Salvation Army store in January last year.
During the two day judge-alone trial, store manager Helen Ravlich told the court she saw Nash, who was a volunteer, leave the shop with the bag tucked under her arm.
Ravlich said she knew the bag belonged to the store because of its distinctive bright colours and it had been out the back for about a week.
To be sure, Ravlich said she waited until Nash returned to the shop and “was deployed” downstairs to give her time to look in her car.
And there it was, she said, jammed in a back footwell wrapped in what appeared to be a white towel.
“I could see it was in her car and I just felt sick,” Ravlich told the court.
Nash said she rushed from the store because her Range Rover, which she was still paying off, was parked in a 60-minute zone.
“I went, ‘ Ugh’ and thought, that’s not good’.”
So she threw her white jumper over her shoulder, along with her black bag, and went to move the car.
Nash, supported by ex-husband Thane Kirby, told the court she’d bought the bright pink and yellow fake Dior bag about five or six years ago, along with two others, for her daughters to play dress-ups with.
In fact, Nash hadn’t even seen the bag out the back that morning — she would have noticed and thought “that’s like mine”, she said.
Nash said she had intended to sell a bunch of bags at a market in Silverdale but not the fake Dior bag as it was her daughter’s play thing.
Mathers said in her decision although there was no onus on Nash to prove her innocence she had to put up a “positive defence” to rebut the fact that an identical bag to the missing one was found in her car.
“It is very difficult to tell if a witness is lying but where there are such stark inconsistencies coupled with the bag allegedly being a play bag for her children for up to five years and yet ‘Okay being in ‘ mint’ or ‘very good’ condition, despite describing her children as ‘rambunctious and messy’, and being dusty on top, and coupled with the explanation of an identical bag and the fact of no sale taking place, I found her evidence most unsatisfactory and unreliable [and] have not accepted it.”
The judge said a finding of theft was a very serious matter regardless of the small amount at stake. After “anxious consideration” and weighing up all the evidence, including the “unsatisfactory and unreliable” evidence from Nash, she found police had proven the case beyond reasonable doubt.
Nash had “acted dishonestly and she had no belief that her actions in taking the bag were lawful”.
Mathers found Nash guilty but will not enter a conviction until sentencing in May.