No jail time for money launderer

A woman who was sentenced for money laundering will not go to jail.

A Whangarei woman who went on a pawn shop selling spree then tried to reclaim the seized stolen property from the police station has been sentenced to 11 months' home detention.

Nicole Jacinta Faulkner, 26, was sentenced on five counts of money laundering after she disposed of jewellery stolen on February 19 from a private workshop in Onerahi.

Police are yet to lay charges in relation to the original theft, which saw $120,000 of property stolen.

Starting February 23, Faulkner visited four jewellery and pawn shops in Whangarei and Auckland over three days selling $54,500 of jewellery for $6660, the police summary of facts presented to Whangarei District Court stated.

On February 25, Faulkner was arrested after she altered a $2700 cheque from Auckland's Walker and Hall Queen St branch by crossing out her name and writing "pay cash".

A bank picked up on the forgery and contacted Walker and Hall to stop the cheque. Faulkner then returned to Walker and Hall to ask for the jewellery back, to be told it had been seized by police.

At 8pm that day, Faulkner went to Auckland Central Police Station to reclaim the jewellery, where she was arrested for receiving.

Whangarei District Court Judge Murray Hunt also ordered Faulkner to pay reparation of $5000 to the victim, but acknowledged there was more than $50,000 of jewellery that had not been recovered.

"It just isn't good enough that the victim should be substantially out of pocket because of (Faulkner's) unwillingness to say who else was involved," Judge Hunt said.

In imposing reparation, the judge took into account that Faulkner received only $193 a week and had to pay child support for two children out of that sum. Judge Hunt said the key mitigating factor was that Faulkner's pattern of offending suggested she was "naive" and unlikely to have been the "ringleader" of the heist.

"It is only by the narrowest margin that you aren't going to prison today," he told Faulkner.