‘It was 30 seconds of madness’: Renee Ferguson could face jail over Cricket Tasmania thefts

“It was 30 seconds of madness”: The woman at the centre of the Tim Paine sexting scandal has pleaded guilty to unrelated stealing charges from Cricket Tasmania, which could lead to jail time.

Renee Ferguson leaving the Hobart Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to stealing from Cricket Tasmania. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

THE woman who made headlines after she became embroiled in a sexting scandal with former Australian test cricket captain Tim Paine is facing the possibility of jail time — after finally pleading guilty to unrelated stealing charges.

Renee Ferguson, 49, was due to face the Hobart Magistrates Court on Thursday for a two-day hearing after pleading not guilty to scores of stealing and two dishonesty charges against Cricket Tasmania.

Instead, Ferguson changed her plea to guilty at the eleventh hour, after a number of charges against her were dropped earlier in the week.

Prosecutor Andrew Tye said Ferguson was 44 and employed as a Cricket Tasmania administrative assistant when, while working at Bellerive’s Blundstone Arena, she stole $5600 worth of cash and memberships.

Mr Tye said on numerous occasions, Ferguson took cash from customers but would not record the transactions, instead taking the money into a back room or putting it in a drawer.

He said she was seen on CCTV footage flicking through notes in her wallet.

When confronted, Ferguson said she had “occasionally forgotten to complete the daily takings sheet” before resigning in December 2017.

Renee Ferguson, right, with her lawyer Marcia Edwards. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Mr Tye said only six weeks before she started working at Cricket Tasmania, Ferguson had been sentenced over prior stealing offences.

He said she’d stolen $29,185 from a specialist medical centre she’d worked at, pocketing the money for her own debts, groceries and school fees, instead of banking it.

Mr Tye said Ferguson had been given a 12-month suspended sentence for that offending – which wouldn’t be activated unless she committed another imprisonable offence within two years.

He argued “it wouldn’t be unjust” to activate that suspended sentence now.

But Ferguson’s new defence lawyer, Marcia Edwards, asked Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason to consider the “very unique situation” Ferguson was in.

Ms Edwards said Ferguson offered her apologies to Cricket Tasmania “with absolute contrition”.

She said as a result of the “overwhelming” media attention regarding the Tim Paine saga, Ferguson had “fled” Tasmania to Victoria “to decrease the humiliation and shame” she was experiencing, making the difficult decision that it would be better for her two children to live with their father.

Ms Edwards said Ferguson was going through a divorce and had left a stable, long-term job, when she moved into what she described as “very toxic workplace environments” at both the medical centre and Cricket Tasmania.

She said Ferguson felt she was being underpaid at the medical centre, so “fool-heartedly” decided to pay herself by stealing from the business.

“I’m not being trite when I say this – it was 30 seconds of madness,” Ms Edwards said.

“For Ms Ferguson, it was some four years of madness.”

She said Ferguson reported the problems she experienced at Cricket Tasmania, but these were ignored and she was sanctioned for speaking up.

“She finds herself in this whirlwind where she thinks it’s a good idea to punish Cricket Tasmania for the way they’re treating her,” Ms Edwards said.

The lawyer also addressed Ferguson’s long history of delays, repeated failures to appear in court, and repeated changes of plea and lawyers.

“It just all piled up on her as instead of just facing this matter head on as perhaps one should have, she just buried her head in the sand,” she said.

Ms Edwards, gesturing at media representatives sitting in court, said media attention had been “thrust upon her”.

“Any time she came back to Tasmania, it would become nothing less than a circus,” she said.

She said Ferguson had since built a new life in Bendigo with a new partner, and had a job with a business that knew about her history and trusted her.

Ms Geason said she would sentence Ferguson, who remains on bail, on March 1.

“Be prepared there may be some custody, I’m not sure, or a home detention order,” she said.

Follow @ambervwilson

Originally published as ‘It was 30 seconds of madness’: Renee Ferguson could face jail over Cricket Tasmania thefts