A woman who was found to be stealing whilst hired as a cleaner has been given a 12 month community corrections order and made to pay $1000 to her victim at Cowra Local Court.
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Melissa Jane Thompson, 35, of Allenby Avenue, Forest Hill, plead guilty at court on November 7 to steal property in dwelling-house.
According to the police facts, the victim, who resides in Orange, made contact with Ms Thompson in regards to some cleaning work.
They made an agreement for Ms Thompson to clean the victim’s house every second Friday.
The victim returned after work one day to find a nail kit missing and a drink bottle missing.
Some time later, the victim noticed $1000, that was gifted to them in a box, and a bracelet was missing.
At 6.50pm on Thursday, March 1, the victim contacted Ms Thompson by Facebook however they did not receive a reply.
At 1.50pm on March 2, the victim found the nail kit and bracelet in her letter box. At 4.40pm the same day, the victim reported the matter to police. Ms Thompson sent a message to the victim admitting to stealing the items.
On Thursday, April 12, police attended a Logan St residence and spoke to Ms Thompson.
“I just stuffed up, I was going through a bad time in my life. I offered to pay the money back,” she said.
Ms Thompson’s solicitor Clive Hill said Ms Thompson had been dealing with a number of personal issues and had returned the items and offered to pay the money back.
“Life has spiraled out of control since then,” he said.
Magistrate Michael O’Brien said while Ms Thompson cooperated with police, she still denied stealing the items and money.
“The breach of trust is particularly disturbing,” he said.