The Chronicle

Mother avoids jail after spate of crimes

- PETA MCEACHERN

THE law finally caught up with a Chinchilla mum who went on a seven-month crime spree across regional Queensland.

Police prosecutor Chris Hutchins said Tracy Florence May Fraser seemed to be living a transient lifestyle in February when Gin Gin police searched her bag and found meth, a knife and a hammer.

Gin Gin officers were investigat­ing a fraud case when they were led to Fraser and her partner during a search at a laundromat.

Fraser also failed to supply a sample of her DNA, adding failure to appear to her growing rap sheet.

Sergeant Hutchins said the 48-year-old waltzed into Price Busters in Gayndah where CCTV caught her stealing $17 worth of items including duct tape, incense, and cards.

She and her partner had both been pushing prams around the store and took off after being confronted by staff, the court heard.

Again, Fraser was required to attend a police station but never appeared.

Sergeant Hutchins said the mother of six then failed to show up to a court date in Longreach on August 18 before turning herself in at Chinchilla 12 days later.

“She needs assistance. There’s clearly something going on, but I don’t know what it is… she needs some supervisio­n,” he said.

Fraser pleaded guilty to possessing drugs, possessing a knife in a public place, possessing a hammer intended for to be used for an offence, stealing, contraveni­ng police, and failing to appear.

Magistrate Kerri O’Callaghan sentenced the Charlevill­e-born woman to nine months’ probation and ordered the $17 in restitutio­n to be paid. The suspended sentence Fraser was on was not reactivate­d.

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