A South African woman who accused Shane Warne of harassing her with text messages was jailed this week after being convicted of extortion.
Helen Cohen Alon was sentenced on Monday to 18 months in prison, or a R20,000 ($A4355) fine, for extorting R50,000 from Warne associate Gavin Varajes who, she said, had offered her money to keep quiet about the sexually explicit messages.
Cohen Alon, who had consistently claimed she was being framed by Warne's associates, wept as Magistrate Renier Boshoff handed down the sentence. She was taken into the holding cells at the Wynberg Magistrates Court while her 19-year-old son, Luther Cohen, tried to collect the money.
When the fine was not paid, she was taken to Johannesburg Prison and was still being held there yesterday.
The 47-year-old mother of three burst into the limelight a year ago when she claimed that Warne had bombarded her with text messages after the two had flirted while he was on a cricket tour of South Africa in 2002. She alleged that Warne sent her more than 40 salacious text messages after they had kissed.
Cohen Alon claimed in interviews last year that Varajes had offered her R200,000 in hush money, but that he paid her only half the amount. She went public with her allegations about the messages when he failed to come up with the rest of the money.
Varajes accused her of extortion after she tried to get him to pay her R50,000 despite having signed an agreement with him that the R100,000 in cash was "full and final payment".