The lawyer representing a wealthy Chinese woman, Lanlan Yang, has told a Sydney court her defence needs extra time to decide on a plea, after New South Wales police added additional charges.
The 23-year-old has been accused of driving a $1.5m Rolls-Royce SUV which crashed head-on into a car driven by George Plassaras, a driver for Sydney radio host Kyle Sandilands, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on 26 July.
Plassaras suffered serious injuries in the collision.
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Yang was initially charged with causing bodily harm by misconduct and refusing or failing to submit to a breath test. She was later additionally charged with dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and failing to provide police with her details.
She now also faces an additional charge of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, the court confirmed. However, the initial charge of causing bodily harm by misconduct has now been withdrawn.
Yang’s solicitor, John Korn, told Downing Centre local court on Friday that her defence team needed more time to discuss matters with Yang before entering the plea, as they were only notified of all charges against her this week.
The court’s acting deputy registrar granted the delay, but told Korn that Yang must enter a plea in the next mention.
Yang’s case has attracted local and international media attention around her outwardly lavish wealth.
During her first police mention in August, about 100 members of the Chinese Australian community queued outside the court.
Her second mention earlier this month also attracted a dozen Chinese Australians – mostly Chinese international students and Chinese language media – to hear the matter.
Yang has been on bail in relation to her two initial charges. She has been instructed to report to the police station once a week.
Korn has been told that he needed to lodge a formal application regarding Yang’s bail condition in relation to the other three charges.
Korn told the Guardian that the court had excused Yang’s attendance at court.
“We’ve only been told what the final charges are, now we are going to go away and talk to her about what her pleas are going to be.”
The matter will return to court in October.
