A Ballarat mother-of-three who pleaded guilty to blackmail has avoided an immediate jail sentence.
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Three years ago, Renee Louise Fraser, 28, took hold of a woman’s memory card, which contained professional interviews with her clients – many of whom were children.
Over a seven hour period on September 15, 2015 while she held the memory card, Fraser made menacing demands via text messages to the victim for $1400.
Fraser alleged the victim’s son owed her the money. The victim received a phone call by a person appearing to be Fraser’s sister advising her the card was being held.
The demands followed a burglary at the victim’s house, which was her workplace, where the card was stolen from a video camera.
At the County Court of Victoria on Monday, Judge Michael McInerney described Fraser’s offending as heinous.
“It was a very heinous crime to threaten a professional in such a manner with such an attack on her professionalism and, more important, with the risk of her clients’ integrity being disclosed,” Judge McInerney said.
The court had previously been told Fraser’s drug addiction led to her offending which started in 2015.
Judge McInerney said he did not know if her drug addiction explained why she would commit a serious crime “but perhaps it just demonstrates what happens to people when they are so inflicted”.
Fraser’s defence submitted she did not have any prior offences until 2015 when she was 25-years-old.
She was sentenced to a four-year community corrections order, which includes 250 hours of community work and the completion of various programs. She was fined $2000.