SUSIE Fishers’ court saga could finally end next month, almost three years after the matter first appeared before a magistrate.
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The Newnham pharmacist and thief’s case was adjourned again on Thursday, but she looks set to be sentenced on August 18.
Fisher stole more than $30,000 from Australia Post between April 2011 and May 2012.
The postal service kept quantities of cash stored inside Fisher’s pharmacy which she had access to.
The matter first appeared before the court in October 2013.
The hearing spanned almost 18 months.
Since her guilty verdict on June 2, Magistrate Reg Marron has listed the matter for sentencing three times.
On July 6, the matter was adjourned after a quarrel between Fisher's lawyer Evan Hughes and Commonwealth prosecutor Ian Arendt over hypothetical financial damages that jail time could cause to Fisher’s pharmacy.
Their debate continued on Thursday, after Mr Hughes provided financial evidence of the hypothetical predicament.
“The business would not be economically viable,” he said.
Mr Hughes called it an “impossible situation to rectify”.
Mr Arendt refuted the claims again and said there was only “an element of risk” that Fisher would lose everything.
“What we’re really doing is speculating about what may or may not happen,” he said.
In reference to Mr Arendt’s lack of concern about Fisher’s money potentially drying up, Mr Hughes retorted: “It seems the Commonwealth thinks this is a case of magic pudding that just keeps coming and coming.”
Fisher's crimes carry a maximum of five years' jail.
Mr Hughes expressed concern that a prison term could also see Fisher deregistered as a pharmacist by the nation’s regulatory body.
But Mr Arendt argued that that would likely only occur if the crimes related to her pharmaceutical practice.
“(Deregistration) is the most extreme course of action the authority can take,” he said.
Mr Hughes said Mr Arendt’s statements didn’t “sit with logic”.
Without comment on the squabble between the pair, Mr Marron set aside the date in August for sentencing.
He will now review the information, facts and statements given to him by Mr Hughes and Mr Arendt before deciding Fisher’s fate.
