Chantelle Terine Currie pleads guilty to receiving tainted property

A woman who claimed she wasn’t aware the car she bought from Facebook marketplace had stolen plates has been sentenced after accepting there could have been “clues” something was amiss.

A woman who bought a car from Facebook Marketplace has ended up in court after it was discovered the plates were stolen.

Chantelle Terine Currie pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court on Friday to one count of receiving tainted property.

On May 17, police found a car parked in the driveway of Currie’s house at Thabeban and identified the plates on the car as stolen.

The plates had been reported stolen from a residence in South Bingera the same month.

Currie told police she bought the car through a Facebook advertisement one week prior with the plates already on the vehicle.

She told police she wasn’t aware they were stolen plates.

Magistrate John McInnes asked the police prosecutor if inquiries were made into the seller of the vehicle, but the prosecutor told him the information he had did not indicate that.

Chantelle Terine Currie leaves Bundaberg Courthouse after pleading guilty to receiving tainted property.

Currie told the court she was currently pregnant with her third child and was receiving Centrelink benefits.

She told the court she no longer had the car because it had been “written off”.

Magistrate McInnes reminded Currie he could not sentence her for receiving tainted property if she had no reason to believe the plates were stolen.

“You’ve pleaded guilty to receiving,” Magistrate McInnes said.

“Receiving means you obtained possession of something and had some idea that those plates might have been stolen plates, either from being told or the circumstances.

“So that’s what your plead of guilty means and you told police you had no idea.

“I couldn’t sentence you on that basis, I can only sentence you if you accept that you’re being sentenced on the basis that there were some clues available to you that suggest those plates were dodgy. Do you want to go ahead with your plea on that basis?”

Currie told the court she would continue to plead guilty with that understanding.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” she said.

Magistrate McInnes told Currie he took her personal life into consideration, including that she was a mother to two young children, before sentencing her.

Currie was fined $500, referred to SPER and a conviction was recorded.