Pregnant woman ‘bashed for handbag’ becomes thief after stealing $700k from dad

A woman who made headlines after she was brutally bashed while pregnant in a suburban street mugging has been found guilty of swindling $700,000 from her elderly father.

Natalie Hotait, 33, left the nation shocked in 2016 after a horrific alleged robbery of her handbag in Sydney’s west which left the mother badly injured.

Ms Hotait appeared on several network news channels with bruises across her face and a split eyelid as she told of her ordeal, telling how she feared during the attack she would lose her unborn baby.

Eight years on, Ms Hotait has taken on the role of thief herself – appearing in Parramatta District Court last week after stealing $700,000 from her own father in April of 2020.

According to court documents obtained by news.com.au, Ms Hotait’s father Lewis Buhagiar asked his daughter for help with online banking after receiving $650,000 from his deceased parents’ estate.

Ms Hotait helped him set up a Netbank app on his phone, which she later used to transfer the money out of his account, and into her husband Michael’s account.

The pair and Mr Buhagiar lived together at the time in a house in Greystanes.

Court documents state that before the transaction, Mr Hotait had rung the Commonwealth Bank and pretended to be Mr Buhagiar to increase his transfer limits.

“The victim did not authorise any of these transfers,” the documents state.