A woman accused of killing her father for an inheritance was bankrupt and had just $119.99 in her accounts, a court has heard.

The jury to decide the fate of Lynne Martin was shown details of her financial situation on Wednesday, the eighth day of what was expected to be a five-week trial in the High Court at Gisborne.

Martin, 63, is accused of murdering her father Ronald Russell Allison, 88, by setting fire to his house near Te Karaka, about 30km from Gisborne, in the early hours of January 25, 2013.

The Crown says Martin drove from her home in Tauranga and killed him because she was broke, angry, and wanted the $150,000 inheritance she would get when he died.

On Wednesday police financial investigator Bruce Russell presented records of Martin’s own bank account, plus a bank account she shared with her husband, Graeme Martin, for the period from July 2012 until the end of January 2013.

Martin’s primary source of income over this period was a Work and Income benefit of between $201 and $228 per week. She would also receive occasional payments for work of between $60 and $90.

At the time of her father’s death, Martin had just $119.99 in the accounts, Russell said.

Russell also presented a credit check on Martin, which had been compiled two weeks after her father’s death.

It revealed that Martin had been taken to court for a debt of $598 from a Tauranga law firm in August 2010, and that she was adjudged bankrupt in the High Court at Tauranga in October 2010.

The check also revealed that she had defaulted on debts to four creditors in 2009 and 2010. These included a $5,434 debt to GE Finance and Insurance, $1,962 to the ANZ bank, $1121 to East Bay Finance, and $1074 to Marac Finance.

A further default of $160 to Eastern Appliance Rentals from June 2012 was later repaid.

On top of these debts was a court order from June 2010 requiring her to pay $11,298.

Russell identified all transactions that occurred at service stations over the seven-month period. While they might have included purchase other than fuel, the average of the 41 transactions was $24.53.

Just two transactions were for more than $45, and one of these was a payment of $60.88 at the Caltex at Welcome bay in Tauranga the day before Allison died in the house fire.

Earlier on Wednesday Detective Sergeant Steve Smith described meeting Martin about two weeks after the fire and telling her that her cellphone had polled off the Te Karaka cellphone tower on the night of Allison’s death, meaning the phone must have been in the area.

She replied “I wasn’t there. I don’t know”, he said.

When he asked if she saw that this would be a problem for her, she nodded her head and said “I’m content with finding answers”.

Smith asked Martin about her arson conviction in Australia in 1999, after she set fire to two motor vehicles owned by her partner at the time.

She told him she had “no memory of it at all” and that she had difficulty remembering some things, including a nine-month stint in hospital of which she had no recollection.

Lynne Martin allegedly drove from Tauranga to her father's house near Te Karaka, 30km northwest of Gisborne, to set his house on fire and kill him. Imgae: Google Maps.

The jury also heard from the owner of Gisborne Marine, Scott Wootton, who was contacted by Martin in September 2011 to assess a boat stored on her father’s farm for possible purchase.

Wootton said he met Martin and her husband at Allison’s property and agreed to pay $4,000 for the small motorboat, and took it to his yard in Gisborne. But a day or two later, he got a call from Allison’s son John, who wanted to know why the boat was in his yard. When he learned that Martin was trying to sell it, John told Wootton to cancel the sale as the boat wasn’t hers to sell.

Wootton said Martin became furious about this and rang him five times within just over an hour, in which she abused him and told him he’d be out of business.

“I’ve never had a situation like that before,” he said.

He said she’d been pleasant to deal with until John’s involvement and described her as a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality.

-Marty Sharpe/Sutff.