A Chatham woman accused of arson and convicted of fraud and breaching her bail conditions will remain out of jail.
Erin Ott, 32, of Chatham was convicted in Chatham court on Monday for fraud and breaching her bail conditions in November 2024.
Ott pleaded guilty to breaching her bail conditions and defrauding a man out of $715 after she stole two credit cards from a truck in Chatham in July 2024.
The court heard that in November 2024, Ott's mother and surety reported that her daughter breached her bail conditions after associating with a man she was ordered by the court not to have contact with.
The prosecution noted that Ott was ordered by the court to remain in her mother's house at all times and not to contact certain people as part of her release in October 2024. However, she ran away from her mother and police in Chatham, and was eventually arrested by Chatham-Kent police, who found her with her GPS ankle monitor cut off and discarded.
The judge gave Ott 12 months probation on the fraud conviction, saying she has no criminal record and is currently in a facility recovering from substance use.
She also got time served for breaching her bail in November 2024.
Ott also has to pay back $185 and was ordered not to have any contact with several people.
She was released on bail in June 2025 and ordered under house arrest at the House of Hope in Windsor, where she remains, to get treatment for her addiction to fentanyl.
Ott will still be tried in Chatham court on January 27, March 11, 24, 25, and 26, 2026, on arson charges stemming from a fire at 99 McNaughton Avenue West in Chatham on August 25, 2024, that displaced approximately 100 residents.
