Community work for burglary

A Timaru woman has admitted pinching flowers on a dare minutes before she was set to be tried on a burglary charge relating to the matter.

Rachael Leah Turnbull, 46, was sentenced to 60 hours’ community work and ordered to pay $200 reparation after pleading guilty to burglary before Judge Jim Large in the Timaru District Court yesterday.

Her plea came the day she was scheduled to defend the charge in a judge-alone trial.

Defence lawyer Jay Lovely said Turnbull admitted accepting a dare from her friends to steal a hanging basket of flowers from a residential property on Church St, about 7.20pm on July 27, 2019.

She walked through the front gate and hopped onto the veranda, scaling a wall to grab the basket.

She stashed it in a bag and returned to her friends.

‘‘She wanted to take it back the next day but was scared,’’ Lovely said.

Turnbull was offering $200 to the victim for the emotional harm caused, he said. She also wanted to take part in restorative justice, but police prosecutor Toaiva Hitila said the victim did not wish to meet with the defendant.

Judge Large said the defendant ‘‘expressed remorse now’’ but chastised her for waiting until ‘‘literally the last minute’’ to plea guilty.

‘‘I’m conscious of the victim’s views because in her victim impact statement, she talks about the intrusion she felt from the burglary of her property,’’ the judge said.

‘‘It is a low-level burglary but a burglary nonetheless.’’

Lovely said Turnbull was on a benefit but planned to retrain to be a makeup and tattoo artist, and personal trainer.

Her last ‘‘dishonesty offence’’ was in 2014 but she had no history of burglary, Lovely said.