The 43-year-old woman appeared in the Bendigo Magistrates Court before Magistrate Russell Kelly on charges stemming from a failure to pay what she admitted was "a really significant amount" of fines.

"How did it get that high?" Mr Kelly asked the woman.

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The woman told the court she was a former police officer who had been diagnosed as bipolar and suffering from post traumatic stress disorder that "being an adult was something (I'm) just not capable of".

She detailed her ongoing psychiatric treatment that had helped improve her wellbeing, and that at 43, she felt like an adult for the first time in a long while.

"I understand this is a debt I owe," she told the court.

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After a brief adjournment, Mr Kelly returned to the courtroom and asked the nervous female defendant to stand.

"Your fines are all fully discharged," he said.

"You are free to go."

The emotional and shocked woman thanked the magistrate before Mr Kelly excused her from the court.

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