Mary-Beth Sharp

Mary-Beth Sharp (sometimes Mary-Elizabeth Willis) is a New Zealand lawyer and marriage celebrant. She is currently a judge sitting in the Auckland District Court. She came to public attention in September 2021 when her adult son was involved in a high-profile breach of New Zealand's COVID-19 lockdown.
Career
She has presided over a number of important cases in relation to the
Consumer Guarantees Act 1993,
Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2000,
Personal life
Sharp is married to Robert Willis. Together they were shareholders in Matawhio Sports Horses Ltd. They have a son William John Lawrence Willis, an equestrian.
In 2002 Sharp was involved in a dispute with a follow judge and coworker, Judge Lovell-Smith and her family over floodlights that Sharp put around an equestrian arena on her property.
In 2013, Sharp was discharged without conviction but order to pay $500 in compensation in a case involving her son's dog biting another woman.
Since 2017 Sharp has been a registered marriage celebrant.
COVID lockdown incident
On 9 September 2021, Sharp's son William Willis and his partner Hannah Christine Rawnsley, 26, a lawyer, drove from their Auckland residence to Hamilton, New Zealand, using Rawnsley's essential-worker documentation to get through the COVID-19 border as lawyers are considered a essential service, and then flew to a holiday home in owned by Sharp and Robert Willis as a skiing holiday-home. The New Zealand Police were notified via an online reporting tool, and caught up with the couple on Saturday 11th and said they would be summonsed to appear in court. The couple were initially granted name suppression, but let it lapse, a decision that Sharp said she supported. Sharp said in a statement that she did not know in advance of the actions, and did not condone them.
Further reading
* Website of Matawhio Sports Horses (archived)
* New Zealand companies register entry for Matawhio Sports Horses
* Website of Roddie Sim (archived)

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