A Lavington woman repeatedly arrested for bad behaviour directed at a neighbour has left town, stopped drinking and stopped offending.
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That, defence lawyer Rod Kennedy told Albury Local Court, was a significant step in her rehabilitation.
Linda McAdam has been a regular defendant over the past four years.
Many of these involved her targeting her neighbour in a block of public housing units in Klose Street, Lavington.
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Most of the time she had been extremely drunk.
The victim had been forced to get an apprehended violence order put in place to stop McAdam, who on one occasion wielded a knife as she screamed abuse at the man from her balcony.
But Mr Kennedy, in a sentencing submission to magistrate Rodney Brender, said McAdam had "turned her life around" since moving to Wagga.
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He said McAdam, 59, was now living among neighbours who were supportive of her, in sharp contrast to her previous life, and aside from relapses in February and March that resulted in her being hospitalised had kept off the grog.
"It's an unusual criminal history in that it doesn't start until 2015."
Mr Kennedy said that came with the breakdown of a relationship that coincided with "chronic alcoholism".
"She's finally been diagnosed with some mental health disorders that are finally being addressed."
Mr Brender sentenced McAdam to 12 months in custody on charges of destroy or damage property and contravene an apprehended violence order, but she will serve that by way of an intensive corrections order.
McAdam must pay $3583 compensation to the victim for damaging and scratching one side of his car and slashing his tyres on August 20, 2018.
