A Netflix reality TV star was spared jail after being caught attempting to smuggle drugs worth £150,000 to Britain from Thailand.
Olga Bednarska, who has appeared on the dating show Too Hot to Handle, was stopped by customs officers at Manchester Airport in October with two large suitcases filled with 40kg (88lb) of cannabis.
She was handed a suspended sentence at Manchester Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty.
The court heard Bednarska, 27, had agreed to take designer goods from Phuket, southern Thailand, back to Britain in exchange for £18,000.
Sentencing the Poland-born reality personality, Judge John Potter said she had amassed a £16,000 debt before flying to the south-east Asian country on Oct 10.
The court was told that Bednarska met an “associate” at the airport before checking into a hotel “free of charge” and being given “spending money” and the two suitcases.
The associate then asked her to provide personal items to “cover up” the goods she had agreed to take with her.
On Oct 20, Bednarska flew from Phuket to Manchester Airport and was questioned by Border Force officials upon her arrival.
The court heard she initially told them she had packed the suitcases herself and that she had not been asked to take anything with her on behalf of someone else.
Samuel Eskdale, prosecuting, 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.”
Cannabis weighing 39.4kg and worth £157,600 was found in vacuum-sealed packages concealed by clothes inside the suitcases.
As Judge Potter sentenced Bednarska, who had no previous convictions, he told her: “I am not going to send you to prison. That will mean you will be released from custody.
“Over the course of the last few years, you have found yourself in financial difficulties. You have simply lived beyond your means.
“You decided to place your trust in someone you hardly knew. You were acting under the direction of others, potentially for further profit.”
He added: “I am sure you can imagine the harm that wholesale value drugs have on our communities when they are sold for profit. You have directly contributed to this by agreeing to do what you did.”
Bednarska, of Newcastle upon Tyne, was given a 20-month prison sentence suspended for two years and ordered to complete 15 days of rehabilitation.
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