You have to wonder at the ‘wisdom’ of the judges that keep giving this fraudster bail. At least Judge Harvey, not one of my favourites for obvious reasons, had the stones to issue an arrest warrant:
A Trade Me scammer who conned customers out of nearly $50,000 had an arrest warrant issued this morning but later had it cancelled after she turned up at court.
Elmira Rafiee, 25, was charged with 56 dishonesty offences after selling website users cut-price iPhones and iPads that never arrived.
She used websites Trade Me and Sella to contact her victims directly pretending to be the seller of products they were interested in. Forty five people fell for the scam and Rafiee pocketed $46,000. The highest single amount paid was $1100 for an iPad.
When caught last year, Rafiee admitted the charges and was told to pay back the money.
She was due to be sentenced today – possibly to jail – but neither she nor her lawyer arrived at Auckland District Court.
A clearly displeased Judge David Harvey called the lawyer “discourteous” and issued a warrant for Rafiee’s arrest.
The warrant was cancelled after Rafiee turned up at court this afternoon and was further remanded for sentencing on November 30.
Today wasn’t the first time Rafiee failed to show up at court.
While awaiting her sentencing, she skipped bail at least three times and was twice caught associating with her boyfriend Chadlyn Vanniekerk, whom she was banned from seeing by a High Court judge after her first breach.
