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Helensburgh hit and run culprit Talia Jade Van-Rysewyk will spend nine months behind bars after failing to convince a judge to reduce her sentence. Van-Rysewyk, who has been on bail since lodging an appeal against her imprisonment in the Local Court in May, was taken into custody by Corrective Services staff on Friday afternoon and led downstairs to cells below Sutherland courthouse, where she will be transferred to a female prison. The green P-plater was driving along a quiet stretch of the Old Princes Highway just before 6.30am on January 5 last year when she collided with cyclist Brendan Braid, flinging him from his bike. The 58-year-old accountant suffered serious injuries, however Van Rysewyk did not stop to help him, instead driving from the scene in her damaged Ford Laser to a friend's place to get it fixed, telling the person the car had collided with a piece of plastic on the roadway. Two cyclists found Mr Braid a few minutes after the collision and called emergency services. Meantime, Van-Rysewyk went to great lengths to cover her crime, recounting the piece of plastic explanation to police when she was arrested about a week later. She subsequently pleaded guilty in May this year to negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and failing to stop and assist after an accident. Local Court Magistrate Geraldine Beattie refused a request from Van-Rysewyk's lawyer John Lo Schiavo to spare his client prison at the time and sentenced her to 18 months' jail, with a non-parole period of nine months. Mr Lo Schiavo made the same request to District Court Judge Paul Conlon during an appeal hearing on Friday, saying both Van-Rysewyk and the public would be better served if she were able to be rehabilitated in the community in line with a treatment plan put in place by her psychologist. However Judge Conlon rejected the submission and upheld Van-Rysewyk's sentence, which included a maximum term of 18 months behind bars, saying the crimes were objectively very serious. "There was a high degree of negligence on the behalf of the appellant," he said. "The community is rightly concerned by the criminality involved with persons who collide with other people on the road, as in this case, and just leave them there."

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