A woman who accepted a hire car stolen from a judge has been told off in court for refusing to tell police who gave it to her.

The unsuspecting judge was duped into handing over car keys to a fake rental-car attendant at Wellington Airport last month.

The thief was posing as a car hire worker and had donned a high-visibility jacket in order to make off with the judge's $50,000 2012 SV6 Holden Commodore.

Yesterday at Masterton District Court, Genesis Ruby Grace Boswell, 24, admitted receiving the car from two people who asked her to store it for them.

The licence plates had been removed and she admitted suspecting it was stolen when police searched her Hessey St property earlier this month on unrelated matters.

The thieves are yet to be found.

Judge Thomas Broadmore condemned Boswell's refusal to help police, but said she may have been under pressure not to.

"This was a very foolish thing to get involved with and I'm not very impressed that you won't say who it was that stole it," he said.

He sentenced her to 80 hours' community work.

- © Fairfax NZ News