Ex-inmate Kat Armstrong avoids jail after defrauding The Women In Prison Advocacy Network

A former prisoner who set up a charity to support female inmates — before being accused of ripping off the organisation — has avoided being sent back to jail.

A former prisoner who set up a charity to support female inmates — before being accused of ripping off the organisation to the tune of $182,000 — has avoided being sent back to jail.

Women In Prison Advocacy Network co-founder Kat Armstrong, 53, of Lilyfield, appeared in Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday and was sentenced to a two year and six month intensive correction order including six months of home detention.

Once described by NSW Health Minister and former Attorney-General Brad Hazzard as a “beacon of hope”, Armstrong spent up to 12 years in prison after developing a heroin addiction and turning to petty crime before being released for the last time in 2003.

Kat Armstrong outside the Downing Centre today. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

In 2008 she founded The Women In Prison Advocacy Network, now known as the Women’s Justice Network, to help female inmates across NSW and also completed a law degree before being arrested on multiple fraud charges in 2018.

Court documents allege Armstrong defrauded the charity of more than $182,000 while she was president of the board of management between 2016 and 2017, including transferring $3200 to install an airconditioning system in her home while purporting the payment was for office renovations.

Magistrate Carolyn Huntsman told the court she had imposed a period of imprisonment on Armstrong last December but that a new report had found she was suitable for a period of home detention.

Armstrong leaves court. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

“You’ll be on a home detention condition for six months, after that it will cease, all the order conditions of an intensive corrective order will be in place,” the magistrate said.

“If there’s an allegation you’re breaching the condition of the order, if there’s a further offence it doesn’t come back to court … it’s in the hands of the State Parole Authority and they can actually take you straight to custody, so it’s very important you will follow the directions as I’m sure you will.”

Armstrong replied: “Thank you”.

The Women’s Justice Network had released a statement last year and said it accepted Armstrong’s guilty verdicts.

“On October 21, 2020, Women’s Justice Network co-founder, Kat Armstrong, was found guilty of fraud charges from 2017 in the NSW Local Court,” it said.

“The NSW justice system has run its course, and WJN accepts the decision that has been handed down.”

“WJN and its Advisory Panel comprising eight women with lived experience of the justice system will continue to work to allow women and girls affected by the justice system.”

Armstrong previously told The Daily Telegraph when she was admitted as a lawyer: “To be recognised, and validated, that I am a fit and proper person; it’s amazing.”