Two and a half years to complete just one hour of a 200-hour community-work sentence is not good progress, the Whanganui District Court has decided.
Tiffany Lee Katrina Whareaorere managed to avoid doing the other 199 hours of her sentence since it was imposed in June 2012, but she didn't manage to avoid arrest.
She appeared in court on Tuesday on a breach of community work, to which she pleaded guilty. She had earlier been arrested on a warrant in Rotorua.
Defence lawyer Stephen Ross said Whareaorere had been moving around the country and overseas because of her partner's employment.
Mr Ross said Whareaorere knew she hadn't completed her sentence, but he did not think she appreciated the seriousness of it. She is currently living in Mokau and has three children, aged 7, 3, and 18 months.
Judge David Cameron convicted her on the breach and remanded her to November 27 for sentencing. Community probation will be seeking to have her community work substituted by a sentence of community detention.