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While this is a sorry tale, it appears the fault lies with one or other party not booking an interpreter.

The more shocking story is in the number of times each day that interpreters don't turn up where they have been booked - either because Crapita haven't bothered to arrange one or the assigned interpreter gets an offer of a more lucrative job (not difficult on the rates paid).

This lady was lucky, she was seemingly answering a summons. Those who appear in custody from the police station and are then dragged in to court to sit through proceedings they don't understand; while a bail application, doomed due to lack of detailed instructions, is made; only to then be carted off to prison with no real idea of what has just happened are not so lucky.

These defendants may be left with the impression that they have just appeared in a country where there is no value in the rule of law or due process, rather than the bosom of justice that our Government tries to hold the country out to be.