A young Wodonga woman who pleaded to be released from custody on bail to look after her children will remain behind bars.
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Renee Pinkerton had argued, through her lawyer, that it was in her children's best interests in terms of their overall development to be in her care.
For now, Albury Local Court has heard, the children are living with their maternal grandmother.
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But magistrate Richard Funston told the 20-year-old, also known by the surname of Pinkering, that there was no way he was going to grant her bail on the three sets of charges.
One sequence involved deception matters.
Mr Funston told Pinkerton, who was smiling but restless when she appeared in the court dock, that with respect to the unlikelihood of her getting bail, she "knew that" would be the case even before the application was heard.
He pointed out it had only be a short while since she had previously appeared before him to make an application for bail, which on that time was granted.
Mr Funston said the best outcome for Pinkerton's children was not her release, but rather "their mother no longer being on 'ice'".
That, he said, would in the circumstances be best achieved by Pinkerton getting clean from drugs while in custody, where she could benefit from drug counselling and rehabilitation programs.
While court papers listed her as living in Fraser Court, Wodonga, police said the unemployed Pinkerton was homeless and that she had been "couch surfing" at the homes of friends.
The three counts of dishonestly obtain property by deception, to which she pleaded guilty, related to incidents in early January.
Pinkerton was driving a car that pulled into three services stations between 10pm on January 6 and 8.30pm the following day.
At the first, the BP service station on Travelstop Way, Lavington, Pinkerton's co-accused got out and began filling the car with diesel fuel.
He eventually put 39.5 litres of fuel valued at $60 into the car, then got back in. Pinkerton then drove off without paying.
The second incident was at 3.30pm the following day when Pinkerton drove into the BP service station on Drome Street, East Albury, and the pair stole fuel valued at $60.73.
Five hours later, the pair did it again - this time it was $55 in fuel from a truck stop.
Pinkerton will be sentenced at a later date.
