Woman lied to protect her brother

A woman who lied to police to protect her brother from being charged over a theft ended up in the dock herself.

Demelza Elizabeth Burnard, 35, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice a year after she told the police another person took a weed eater and sold it, when she knew it was her brother.

By the time the lie was discovered, too much time had elapsed for the real culprit to be charged, the Hāwera District Court was told.

A weed eater was stolen from another person’s address between March 14 and 21, 2017, a police summary of facts said.

A police investigation pointed towards Burnard’s brother and another person being the likely people responsible, the summary said.

But on April 7, 2017, Burnard told police the other person had admitted to her he had taken and sold the weed eater then given some of the money to her brother.

This statement was the catalyst for police deciding to prosecute the other person for the theft, the summary said.

More than a year later, on May 29, 2018, one day before a judge alone trial, Burnard told police she had lied in her statement so her brother would not be arrested for the theft.

She said the other person, who ended up being charged, had actually said her brother had taken and sold the weed eater.

With this information, police decided to offer no evidence at the trial and the charge was dismissed. Because it was more than six months since the theft, the identified offender was unable to be prosecuted.

Burnard was sentenced in the Hāwera District Court on Tuesday on the charge, to which she had previously pleaded guilty.

Crown prosecutor Georgia Milne said aggravating factors included the inability of police to prosecute, meaning she achieved her intention of protecting her brother, and the level of premeditation involved.

‘‘It involved throwing someone else under the bus prosecution-wise.’’

Lawyer Kelly Marriner urged Judge Garry Barkle to impose a sentence of community detention with a night-time curfew rather than home detention so Burnard could more easily care for her two children.

A sentence of home detention would require her to get Corrections Department permission for every time she needed to leave her home to take the children somewhere, she said.

Marriner said Burnard’s brother had been able to put pressure on her as his older sister and she had recently been granted a protection order against him.

‘‘You knew the item had been taken and you knew who took it, but you gave a statement to police that meant some other person was facing a charge for some time,’’ Judge Barkle said.

‘‘You maintained your position for over a year while the matter stayed in play and awaiting a trial.’’

He sentenced her to seven months’ home detention and ordered her to repay $200 to the owner of the missing weed eater.

‘‘Thanks for not sending me to jail,’’ Burnard said to the judge as she left the dock.