Woman who stole petrol claims she was waiting for her Centrelink payment

Zoe Andrews, 31, of Peak Hill was found guilty in her absence of never licenced person drive vehicle on road, dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception and drive while licence cancelled in Dubbo Local Court on Wednesday, June 19.

Documents tendered to the court say at 11.35am on Thursday, May 23, 2024 police were patrolling Rosella Street Dubbo, when they stopped a Gold Mitsubishi for random breath testing.

When Andrews was asked to produce her licence she told the officer, "I think it's expired".

Andrews told the officers she was driving to a friend's house to get a lift home as she knew she couldn't drive.

Checks showed that Andrews licence was cancelled and expired in May 2017.

Andrews was issued with a court attendance notice and told not to drive.

On May 12, 2024 at 2pm Andrews drove to Woolworths Petrol Station in Wellington, filled up with $30 worth of fuel and left without paying.

At 10am on May 21, 2024 Andrews drove to Astron Fuel with two other women in the car.

One of the women put $126 worth of petrol in the car.

Andrews entered the store wearing grey pyjamas with pink stars on them, white shoes and a dressing gown with the hood up.

She attempted to pay four times with her debit card and it declined each time.

Andrews asked if she could leave to go and organise some money, however the worker at the petrol station said she must remain and organise the payment to be brought to the service station.

Andrews eventually left the store and drove away, failing to pay for the fuel.

On May 23, 2024 the victim went to Dubbo Police Station to report the incident and provided police with receipts, CCTV footage and an image of Andrews driving away in her car.

At 11.35am the same day, Andrews was stopped by Highway Patrol in the same outfit she was wearing the night before.

Andrews admitted to not paying for the fuel, saying that her partner had not transferred money into her account. She also told police she had intentions of paying after her government benefits to enter her account the next day.

She said she was aware her bank card wasn't working at the time of trying to pay with it.

The police finished the interview and left the scene.

On May 28, the victim told the police Andrews never returned to pay for the petrol.

At 3.20pm on May 5, 2024 police were patrolling the Dubbo area and noticed a silver Mitsubishi Lancer driving down Thompson street.

Police stopped the vehicle on the corner of Thompson Street and Menzies Avenue for the purpose of a random breath test.

Andrews was asked to produce a valid drivers licence, where she replied, "Sorry sir, I don't have one, I'm disqualified".

Andrews returned a negative alcohol reading.

Checks were conducted on the police and RMS systems, which confirmed that Andrews was disqualified and had not held a licence in NSW for some time.

Magistrate Garry Wilson fined Andrews $1000.