‘SUGAR BABY’ GUILTY OF

A Hamilton woman who extorted money from her sugar daddy by threatening to release explicit footage of their rendezvous has pleaded guilty to a charge of blackmail.

Amy Simeon-Smith was convicted and sentenced to community work at the Hamilton District Court on Thursday.

The 25-year-old met her victim, described as a wealthy local businessman, on the dating website seekingarrangement.com in December 2015. The website is described as ‘‘matching sugar daddies to sugar babies’’.

On December 7, 2015, the pair met up at the Novotel Hotel in Alma Street, Hamilton.

They talked through the details of their arrangement and it was agreed that Simeon-Smith would get $400 a week during the course of the relationship.

After the conversation, the pair had sex.

Simeon-Smith’s lawyer Michael McIvor said in court that this was where the arrangement turned sour, adding that businessman had previously given his client around $800 for car tyres.

Simeon-Smith left the hotel without being paid and then received a text from the businessman stating that the arrangement was off.

‘‘It was not part of the initial arrangement, but she felt pressured into sex as the only way to get herself out of debt,’’ McIvor said.

‘‘[My client] felt she was taken advantage of and wondered whether [she] would be paid.’’

Simeon-Smith told her victim that she would show a recording of their Novotel tryst to his work colleagues if he did not pay her $500.

Simeon-Smith and the victim communicated by online messaging app WhatsApp.

According to the court summary of facts, the businessman deposited the $500 demanded into Simeon-Smith’s account the next day in fear she would show the intimate recordings to his colleagues, as she had threatened.

He received another message from her on December 14 to say that if he did not apologise, she would release the intimate video to his work colleagues.

Soon after, the businessman laid a complaint with police and the incident was investigated.

When Simeon-Smith was interviewed by police, she admitted there was no recording and she felt taken advantage of.