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Unlicensed driver hit the power pole so hard it snapped

The Gympie mother had two accidents and failed to appear in court

Sarah Lucy Tanna, pictured, was found guilty of failing to show up to court, despite saying she was bedridden at the time. Photo: Facebook
Sarah Lucy Tanna, pictured, was found guilty of failing to show up to court, despite saying she was bedridden at the time. Photo: Facebook

A WOMAN who broke her foot in a car crash was punished for failing to appear in Gympie Magistrates Court the day she got out of hospital.

It was one of two car crashes last year that landed Sarah Lucy Tanna in trouble - the second was just weeks later on September 14, when she crashed her Ute so hard into a power pole on Lynch Rd at East Deep Creek it snapped the pole from its base.

She was driving without a licence at the time and was taken to hospital again.

The 33-year old mother of one pleaded guilty to the charge when she faced Gympie Magistrates Court yesterday where she was disqualified from driving for one month and fined a total of $1000 for three offences.

 

Sarah Lucy Tanna, pictured, is pleading not guilty to a further three charges and will return to court in March.  Photo: Facebook
Sarah Lucy Tanna, pictured, is pleading not guilty to a further three charges and will return to court in March. Photo: Facebook

 

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She pleaded her case against failing to appear in court on August 3 last year, saying she was "bedridden" after crashing her Ute at East Deep Creek.

"I was in a wheelchair. I couldn't come until the 18th of August," she told Gympie magistrate Chris Callaghan.

"There is wheelchair access at the court," Mr Callaghan told the woman.

"You could have appeared on the day and certainly after that."

When asked to produce a medical certificate Tanna told Mr Callaghan "she didn't carry it around with her".

Magistrate Chris Callaghan
Magistrate Chris Callaghan

He found her unable to "show cause" and convicted her of failing to appear in court.

Tanna was further convicted when she pleaded guilty to false representation after posing as her stepsister on January 30, last year when she was pulled over by police.

Tanna had kept her stepsister's ID in her purse after the pair had gone out together five months earlier, the court heard.

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She used it as ID when questioned by police, a mistake she told the court was "stupid".

Callaghan accepted her guilty plea and fined her $300 for the offence.

Tanna is due to appear in court in March to face charges of driving without a licence, possessing a flick knife and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

She has entered three not guilty pleas to the remaining charges.

Originally published as

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Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/gympie/wheelchair-excuse-gets-woman-nowhere-in-gympie-court/news-story/fd8207993c37c4856ed6891555ba041b