'Catch Me If You Can' conwoman Jody Harris has pleaded guilty to nearly 100 fraud-related offences.
Harris, 30, tapped her nails on the dock as magistrate Peter Mealy asked her how she pleaded to the charges stemming from a five-month identify-fraud crime spree, during which she ripped off the identities of 15 Victorian women.
Harris replied "yep, yep" as Mr Mealy addressed her before she pleaded guilty to "all of them".
Her plea came after prosecutor Lisa Mendicino told Melbourne Magistrates Court that five charges against Harris would be withdrawn, leaving her facing 96 counts.
Harris, of no fixed address, assumed the women's identities to steal goods and cash worth nearly $160,000 between January and May 2006.
Documents tendered to the court reveal Harris said told police during an interview she was "using copious amounts of speed amphetamines and crystal at the time of these offences and I wasn't in my right state of mind".
Harris confessed to police after her arrest in Sydney in July 2006 and when she couldn't remember particular offences said "it would have been me".
Court documents show Harris brazenly entered banks with the women's identity cards to milk their accounts and used stolen ATM cards to withdraw cash.
Harris went on shopping sprees at stores including Carla Zampatti, Louis Vuitton, Christopher Cronis, HMV and Country Road and bought everything from airline tickets to condoms with credit cards stolen from her victims, who she often tried to befriend while posing as a wealthy Toorak woman.
Her victims included a fellow business-class passenger, a woman whose bag she was minding in a nightclub, a bar patron she helped into a cab, and a pedestrian who slipped on a Melbourne city street and lost consciousness.
According to court documents, Harris pulled up to the accident scene in a rental car, pretended to be a doctor, and took the injured woman to the Royal Melbourne Hospital before paramedics arrived.
At the hospital, where the woman was treated for a superficial head injury, Harris stole her driver's licence and copied bank account details from her purse.
Harris has already been sentenced in Sydney's Central Local Court to four years' jail for an identity fraud scam in NSW between October 2005 and June 2006.
She became know as the 'Catch Me If You Can' thief after a Leonardo DiCaprio film about American fraudster Frank Abagnale jnr.
Police alleged she had teased police - similar to Abagnale - while on the run.
At the time of her arrest she was engaged to Victoria Police Senior Constable Andrew Twining and reportedly had in her possession wigs, disguises and a Victoria Police uniform.
Some of Harris' victims described her in statements as a solid-built, well-dressed woman, dripping in chunky jewellery, with painted fingernails and make-up.
She appeared in the dock today wearing a green windcheater and jeans, with her arms folded and her long brown hair partly pulled back. She pursed her lips during the hearing, except to briefly smile at her lawyer.
Flight attendant Leah Jury said in a police statement tendered to the court she immediately felt uncomfortable sitting next to Harris on a Qantas flight to Brisbane.
"She kept watching every move I made and I knew that I didn't like the feel of her," Ms Jury's statement read.
"She had a lot of gold jewellery on with a massive ... four-carat solitaire diamond on her left hand and about a four-carat princess-cut pink diamond on the right hand.
"Her behaviour to the crew was not like that of a regular business class traveller.
"She had a Crown Lager and said 'no glass', not really what most business class passengers do. I couldn't believe it."
Ms Jury told police Harris bragged about her wealth and told her she was a psychologist for a bank before stealing her driver's licence while she was in the bathroom.
An attendant at a jewellery store, where Harris used a stolen card to buy more than $650 worth of jewellery, told police Harris "presented herself well like she was wealthy, and she was cocky in the way that she spoke" but that she believed the large 'diamonds' on her fingers had been fakes.
Mr Mealy remanded Harris in custody until November 21 for a plea hearing in the County Court.
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