Dapto woman Emma Stinson must wait until June to discover her sentence for having a stolen Foton Tunland ute on her property in 2019.
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She was charged over the ute just five days after she was sentenced for negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm in an unrelated incident.
The negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm sentence was handed down after a "hit and run"- style incident in 2018. Stinson left a 17-year-old in the gutter with serious head injuries. The girl had earlier thrown herself on the bonnet of Stinson's car.
Stinson did not attend her hearing over the stolen ute at Wollongong Local Court on Monday as she was having a COVID-19 test, however, Magistrate Michael Stoddart allowed the hearing to proceed without her.
Police allege that, on May 20, 2019 Stinson accepted a lift home from Avondale with men she knew, in a ute she had not seen before.
The ute had been stolen by one of the men earlier the night before.
The men remained at Stinson's Dapto home. Police told the court that equipment had been moved so the ute could be parked in the yard behind the house.
Stinson's defence solicitor said Stinson understood this was so the men could wash the "dirty, well-used" ute, and she supplied them with cleaning equipment.
On May 21 one of the men, who Stinson knew to be unlicensed, sped into the driveway, and she was told he had "copped a chase".
The police arrived shortly afterwards.
Stinson was charged with allowing herself to be carried in a conveyance that was taken without the consent of its owner, and having a conveyance on her premises that may be reasonably suspected of being stolen.
Stinson plead not guilty to both charges.
Magistrate Stoddart dismissed the first charge, however, he found the second to be proven.
"She was with two persons who she knew weren't working and it was clearly a work vehicle, " he said.
"On balance in my view there were a number of occasions where that suspicion [that the vehicle was stolen] could have been aroused and I find the offence proven."
Stinson is due to be sentenced at Wollongong Local Court on June 6.
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