- Lanlan Yang has pleaded not guilty to driving charges
- Excused from court and did not enter her plea in person
Chinese heiress Lanlan Yang has pleaded not guilty to driving charges, after she allegedly ploughed her $1.5million Tiffany blue Rolls-Royce Cullinan into a Mercedes van driven by Kyle Sandilands‘s chauffeur.
Yang’s lawyer Michael Korn eventually appeared on her behalf at Sydney’s Downing Centre on Friday morning, before a packed courtroom of Chinese superfans who sat eagerly in court awaiting her arrival.
The registrar called Yang’s case twice before Mr Korn entered the court without his client, having dealt with a separate case earlier on Friday morning.
Yang was nowhere to be seen.
Mr Korn told the court: ‘I’m instructed to make the pleas of not guilty to all sequences.’
He said there was ‘expert material’ that would be used in evidence.
Outside court, Mr Korn did not directly answer questions about where his client was.
‘She was excused from appearing,’ he said.
Chinese heiress Lanlan Yang (pictured) has pleaded not guilty to driving charges
The head-on crash resulted in terrible injuries for George Plassaras as Lanlan Yang allegedly ploughed her tank-like Tiffany blue Tolls-Royce into his Mercedes van in July
Asked whether Yang was getting special treatment from the court, he said ‘no’.
Yang faces four charges, including one count of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm which could put her behind bars if convicted, with a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.
A back-up charge of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm was recently added.
She is also accused of failing to submit to a breath test and not giving her particulars to police.
The crash, which took place about 3.20am on July 26 at Rose Bay, allegedly left Kyle Sandilands’ cheuffeur George Plassaras with devastating injuries.
Daily Mail has previously revealed Yang has a second Rolls-Royce – a white Ghost convertible worth up to $800,000 – in a spare parking bay at her Eastern Suburbs home.
Yang has been free on bail since first charged and has put on an eye-popping fashion show while reporting to Rose Bay police station as required by her bail conditions.
On one occasion, she appeared wearing a $16,000 purple Chanel vest, accessorised with a $54,000 vintage white gold Van Cleef and Arpels bracelet.
Yang’s luxury harbour-view apartment (above, top) was cleared out after days of people arriving at the flat and removing belongings
The white Rolls Royce Ghost previously parked under Lanlan Yang’s luxury apartment (above) has now vanished, along with the wealthy heiress who has vacated her harbour-view penthouse
But Yang has rarely appeared in person in court, where she risked heavy media coverage.
She has also avoided a crowd of ultra-curious Australian-Chinese ‘fans’ desperate to catch a glimpse of the camera-shy heiress.
Police allege Yang crossed double yellow lines before the head-on collision on New South Head Road in Rose Bay with the Mercedes van driven by Mr Plassaras.
Mr Plassaras’s injuries include a broken spine, two broken hips and two broken femurs, a ruptured spleen and torn-open abdomen.
Daily Mail photographed him following weeks of rehab walking slowly and using a cane.
It has been speculated he may never be able to work again as a chauffeur in a job which demands hours behind a wheel.
‘The injuries are life-changing,’ a source close to the investigation told Daily Mail.
‘This wasn’t just a fender bender. It was catastrophic.’
The matter will return to court on January 30.