Brahima Conteh, 28, appeared in court charged with breaching a domestic violence order for the fourth time.

The court was told the West African refugee had been in a dispute with his former partner over a recent lottery win. The pair, separated since the win believed to have occurred last year had taken the disagreement to the Federal Magistrates Court.

The court has frozen the money earned from the lottery win until the dispute is finalised.

Conteh is alleged to have followed Mbala Kamara into a Braddon store about noon on Saturday. Ms Kamara told police her former partner had threatened her and demanded she drop the civil dispute.

''If you don't give up this case I will kill you,'' Ms Kamara recounted to police shortly after the incident.

Conteh was charged with one count of breaching a 12-month domestic violence order granted in January this year after handing himself in to Gungahlin police station.

But Conteh's lawyer, Paul Edmonds, told the court the dispute was the ''motivation for false allegations on top of further false allegations''. He said the claims of assault had yet to be tested in court and were born of a ''somehow mistaken belief that she will get a larger share if the defendant is convicted''.

Mr Edmonds said his client did not have a criminal record.

Chief Magistrate Burns remanded Conteh in custody until Thursday to allow police time to speak to a potential witness.

For more on this story, including comments of Chief Magistrate John Burns about the relationship between the lottery dispute and the criminal allegations, see the print edition of today's Canberra Times.