Two $100 tips for butter chicken from room service sparked suspicions of staff when the daughter of millionaire property developer and convicted killer Ron Medich checked into a luxury Sydney hotel, a court has heard.
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Denise Allison Medich, 41, and her partner Dean Roger DaSilva are accused of using a stolen credit card to check into the lavish presidential suite at Sir Stamford at Circular Quay in Macquarie Street in 2017.
Each pleaded not guilty to fraud and faced a hearing at the Downing Centre Local Court last week.
The hotel's night auditor said he had been closing the doors of the hotel when Ms Medich walked up pushing a pram and said she had a booking about 1.24am on July 18.
When he couldn't find the booking, which Ms Medich said she understood had been transferred from another hotel, he entered her details into the system manually.
Ms Medich showed him credit card details in a text message on her phone before he took a $1500 holding payment for the one-night stay, which was later extended for two more nights.
The hotel's front officer manager made inquiries about the booking and noticed Ms Medich and Mr DaSilva had twice ordered $25 butter chicken, leaving a $100 tip on the docket each time.
Checks allegedly revealed the credit card used to book the five-star hotel suite had been stolen.
From the witness box, Ms Medich said she had been staying at her father's city apartment with her eight-month-old son at the time while she and Mr DaSilva looked for a new home.
Mr DaSilva had been sleeping in his car and "didn't want my father to think he needed his help", she said.
She said Mr DaSilva told her his friend had organised a hotel for them but the room wasn't available so the suite at the Sir Stamford had been arranged instead.
Ms Medich said she wasn't suspicious, "just frustrated and upset" when the booking didn't show up in the system. "I believed it was Dean's friend giving him some money."
She went into "shock or meltdown" when police knocked on the door of the suite and said the credit card used for the booking had been stolen. "I kept calling Dean telling him he better come back."
Ms Medich said she'd tipped the hotel's night auditor, who had delivered their room service orders, because he had gone "out of his way to be very helpful".
The hearing continues in front of magistrate Joanne Keogh on September 12.
