A woman arrested and remanded in custody on Tuesday night remained overnight in the lock up when she was unable to obtain legal representation on Wednesday.

Ballarat legal aid lawyer Tim Tyler told the court he was unable to act for the woman due to a conflict, and said there was “a dearth of criminal practitioners” in Ballarat on Wednesdays.

He said he had “canvassed all the offices that usually work in this courthouse” but that no one was available. Mr Tyler said it was the woman’s first time in custody and requested she remain in Ballarat and “not be shipped out.”

The court heard the woman, 26, who is charged with a raft of drug and theft-related offences, has no fixed address and had been sleeping in her car.

She was arrested at 11.47pm on Tuesday, after police searched her car, allegedly finding a ‘bong”  and a number of plastic containers, including one that contained a quantity of “blue powder” later revealed to be MDMA.

Police also found a number of cosmetic items in the car, believed to have been stolen.

The accused appealed for bail, saying she “absolutely would turn up the next day” and her partner offered an amount of money, and then offered to to “make it more”, as surety.

Magistrate Robinson acknowledged the accused appeared to have had “a rough time of late” but agreed with the police prosecutor that she had offended while on bail and that the new charges included an indictable offence, and remanded the accused to appear in Ballarat Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.