One of Sydney's best-known hoarders has given school students and a magistrate a vocabulary lesson during her self-represented battle against fines issued during a council-led clean-up.
Bondi sisters Liana and Elena Bobolas were arrested outside their home in July 2015 after allegedly breaching a court order not to go within 10 metres of council workers cleaning up their property.
The order also extended to machinery such as trucks.
With high school students in the public gallery, Liana Bobolas took the opportunity to read the Cambridge Dictionary definition for machinery.
"A group of large machines or the parts of a machine that make it work," she told Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.
The students had left by the time she moved onto the definition of justice.
Liana Bobolas said they weren't in breach of the order because the supposed machines weren't operating.
She said a video shown in court of their arrest and the two-day clean-up had 79 jump-cuts - a "glaring video omission".
Council contractors throwing items into the trucks - "an unsafe work practice" - and police taking her pen and tissue were also problems she cited in her case.
"Police are supposed to be impartial, however police on that day were acting as agents of Waverley Council," she told the court.
Liana Bobolas said she thought there may be an issue of procedural fairness regarding the timing of arresting officer Sergeant Richard Faber's statement.
"It may be to do with fairness. It may be to do with justice. It's curious the statement ... was made in 2019, but the event is 2015," she said.
Elena Bobolas read the Collins Dictionary definition of offence and Macmillan Dictionary definition of obstruct in her closing submissions.
"They say the shovels are machinery but clearly from the definitions, they are not," Elena Bobolas said.
She suggested Sgt Faber wasn't a truthful witness given he had both said he was trying to keep the sisters safe but hadn't allowed her sister immediate access to heart medication.
He gave evidence on Tuesday that he hadn't noticed her breathing irregularly and therefore didn't believe immediate medication attention was necessary
"We did nothing wrong," Elena Bobolas said.
"It's in the interests of justice that the charges be withdrawn."
The Bobolases tried on Tuesday to have magistrate Jacqueline Trad removed from the case due to alleged bias and "prior knowledge" of the sisters, and the entire matter dismissed due to "malicious prosecution".
When Ms Trad refused a question to be asked during Sgt Faber's cross-examination, Liana Bobolas said: "You're obstructing me, Magistrate Trad."
"Thank you for your opinion and legal expertise on my conduct," Ms Trad replied.
The magistrate reserved her decision until November 12.
Australian Associated Press
