A Perth winery owner found guilty of raping a woman he employed has sacked his lawyer on the day he was due to be sentenced.
Chidlow's Well owner and building company operator Peter Raymond Costa, 57, was convicted by a District Court of WA jury last month of three counts of sexual penetration without consent.
![Chidlow's Well winery is in the Perth Hills.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170912224353im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/s/w/5/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gyfdha.png/1505126103378.jpg)
His victim was in Perth on an overseas holiday visa.
Costa, who paid the woman in meals and lodging when she worked on his property in March 2015, was found guilty after about two-and-a-half hours of jury deliberations.
Shortly before sentencing was about to occur on Monday, defence lawyer David Rice told Judge Bruce Goetze that Costa no longer wanted to be represented by him.
Judge Goetze told Costa he would only allow one adjournment while he looked for a new lawyer and he could not delay sentencing beyond that.
He will now be sentenced on October 16.
The trial heard that during the attack, the woman struggled and kicked Costa to try to throw him off, but it only ended when she called out to her colleague, who ran into the room and found them both semi-naked, and she was crying.
AAP