A young woman who lied about her mother's bail status to get through the Albury border checkpoint committed a crime that went "to the heart of the justice system".
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Magistrate Richard Funston told Sydney woman Claudia Melbourne it was a "very serious charge".
He was willing to spare the 20-year-old mother of three a conviction only because of her clean record and her early plea of guilty to the charge of making a false or misleading statement.
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Mr Funston afforded the same leniency to her partner, Ethan Kane Beckett, when he pleaded guilty to the same charge in Albury Local Court on Monday.
The court was told Melbourne and Beckett, 24, were passengers in a car that crossed the border into NSW at the Wodonga Place, Albury, checkpoint on September 2 about 7.50pm.
The driver produced his border permit, then Melbourne and Beckett tried to claim they could cross in order to attend to legal matters in NSW.
Melbourne, who was staying in Wodonga, wrongly claimed that the bail conditions for her mother, Tammie Parnaby, stipulated that she must be with her mother at all times.
She and Beckett were placed on 18-month conditional release orders.
