Credit card conviction quashed 

Kara Symington, 27, had her conviction of obtaining financial advantage by deception overturned in Armidale District Court.

On July 23 Symington was convicted of 10 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage and carrying goods suspected of being stolen.

But during the appeal Judge Paul Lakatos over turned the conviction in relation to how Symington obtained the card.

He said it had to be proven the card was “unlawfully obtained” and he “was not satisfied” Symington had gotten the card illegally, despite her later using it.

Her defence claimed Symington’s children had retrieved the mail from the letterbox and had handed it to their mother.

She then started using the card without realising it didn’t carry her name and the owner had reported it stolen.

Judge Lakatos said there was “no reasonable suspicion” to assume Symington had acquired the card in an illegal manner and it was difficult to prove the case.

He used the analogy of someone finding a credit card in the street, asking whether they would have unlawfully obtained the card in that instance.

However Judge Lakatos said it was “implausible she would not read the envelope… or realise [the credit card] wasn’t hers”.