Woman gets suspended prison sentence after handing forged documents to court
A young woman who violently lashed out at security personnel found herself in deeper trouble after giving fake documents to Magistrates’ Court.Tiara Simmons, 24, from Pembroke, pleaded guilty to three counts of assault and one count of perverting the course of justice.Crown counsel Garrett Byrne told the court that at around 1.10am on July 8, 2012, Simmons was attending a “Bad Girls Club” party at Snorkel Park and attempted to get a VIP wristband after paying for general admission.When she was turned down, she refused to leave the ticket booth and security officers were called. They attempted to escort her away from the event, but she attempted to strike one security guard and punched two others in the face.She was subsequently arrested and processed by police. She was released on bail to appear before the courts on January 30, but failed to attend.Mr Byrne said on the day Simmons was set to appear in court a man believed to be Simmons’ father handed court staff an envelope containing what appeared to be a note from the Hamilton Medical Centre.A police Sergeant noticed the date on the form showed the wrong year. Officers contacted the Hamilton Medical Centre, and were told that no doctor working there had signed the paper.Mr Byrne said the prosecution would not have sought a period of incarceration for the assaults, the fact that the defendant attempted to give the court forged documents made the matter more serious.Lawyer Kim White, representing Simmons, told the court the defendant was overwhelmed by the coming conviction, and created the forged document in an attempt to delay her “day of reckoning”.“She made a bad decision,” he said. “She couldn’t face the court.”Mr White said the defendant was a young woman with no previous convictions and a long history of serving the community. He blamed the assault as the result of a night of drinking, and completely out of character.Simmons herself told the court: “I’m very sorry. This is not something I would normally do. I will not be appearing before the courts again like this.”Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner said: “I think the lesson to be learned here is that it is particularity dangerous to mess with the court process.”Mr Warner said that the type of matter before the court should be dealt with by a custodial sentence, but given the circumstances of the case and the defendant, the sentence should be suspended.The magistrate sentenced Simmons to three months in prison, suspended for two years for perverting the course of justice. He further fined the defendant $300 for each of the three counts of assault.