Quick cash scheme: hired shower sold, court intervenes

By Monique Preston

Oct 7, 2024

A woman has faced court after she sold a portable shower she had hired.

A woman sold a portable shower she hired to make quick money, a court has heard.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

Raelene Harbrow, 52, of Shepparton, pleaded guilty in Shepparton Magistrates’ Court to theft and obtaining property by deception.

Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Deryn Boote told the court Harbrow and her then partner had hired a portable shower from a Bendigo company on November 15, 2022, for use while their property was being renovated.

When an employee of the company turned up at their Shepparton house seven months later to collect the portable shower, it was no longer there.

The prosecutor told the court Harbrow and her partner had sold the shower to another man for between $800 and $1000; however, Harbrow’s solicitor, Luke Slater, said it was sold for only $400.

Mr Slater told the court that when police had asked where the shower was, Harbrow had told them to whom she sold it and the company got it back.

In fining Harbrow $500, magistrate Simon Zebrowski said the plan to sell the shower was “doomed to fail”.

“There was no sophistication,” he said.

“It’s the thing you do when you’re desperate for a quid.”