A Netflix reality was caught trying to smuggle £150,000 worth of drugs into the UK after she was offered £18k and an all-expenses-paid trip to Thailand,
Olga Bednarska, 27, was arrested in October after being stopped by customs officers at Manchester Airport with two large suitcases containing 40kg of cannabis.
According to The Manchester Evening News, the Too Hot to Handle star claimed she was given the bags by a friend called ‘Tex’.
The influencer, who appeared in series three of the hit Netflix show, claimed this person paid for her flights and wanted her to bring back designer clothes and watches from Phuket.
A court heard that Bednarska, from Poland but living in Manchester, had ‘lived beyond her means’ and accumulated £16,000 of debt. To pay this off, she resorted to crime and agreed to fly to Thailand on an all-expenses paid trip to import designer items out of the country in return for £18,000.
Bednarska pleaded guilty to being concerned in the fraudulent evasion of a prohibition on the importation of a class B drug.
Instead, Judge John Potter handed her a 20-month sentence, which was suspended for two year.
The court heard that Bednarska met with an ‘associate’ of her friend Tex on October 10, before checking into her free hotel room in Thailand.
The two suitcases used to smuggle back the goods were purchased with ‘spending money’ given to her.
Alongside the clothes and watches, she was asked to provide ‘cover-up items’ and was expected to play no further role in the scheme.
Samuel Eskdale, prosecuting, said Bednarska was stopped by Border Force officials on October 20 and confirmed she had packed the bags herself.
But she then later told officials she had been given the bags at the airport and was unable to unlock the suitcase as she did not have the code.
Mr. Eskdale said: ‘She was then asked who paid for her flights and she said her friend named “Tex”. She said they wanted her to bring back designer clothes and watches.
‘The officers asked her to unlock the suitcases, but she could not provide the code to do so. She then confirmed she had been given the suitcases at the airport.’
When the cases were finally opened, vacuum-sealed bags of cannabis were found hidden beneath her clothes.
