Probation questioned

Chris Garry | 17th July 2009

AN IPSWICH magistrate has slammed probation orders as unhelpful and ineffectual.

While sentencing 21-year-old Sarah Green, who pleaded guilty to seven charges committed just two months after finishing probation, Magistrate Matthew McLaughlin derided the monitoring program.

“Is probation the answer for you Ms Green? Probably not, because you will go along and sign your name, and then walk out again.”

Ms Green stole from her flatmate and smashed the front door of the house they shared earlier this year following a series of housemate spats.

Prosecutor Senior Constable Rose Kane said Ms Green had been in an altercation with a friend when she became violent and attacked the front screen door of her Booval rented home, smashing it and causing more than $1700 damage.

Snr Const Kane said Ms Green also stole the 18-plus identification card of a flat mate from the same house and used it to try and purchase the drug pseudoephedrine at a Forest Lake pharmacist.

The pharmacist did not believe Ms Green was 18 and alerted police.

The seven charges Ms Green plead guilty to included attempted fraud, stealing, and a range of driving offences.

Ms Green was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution of $1723.37 to her former flatmate for the broken door.

Ms Green's defence lawyer, Matthew Furlough, said his client had a young child and a lot of pressures in her life during the time of the incidents.

Magistrate McLaughlin said Ms Green's child was the perfect reason for her to stop “doing silly things”.

“If there's any motivation for you to change your life, your baby would be it,” Magistrate McLaughlin said.