400k followers, muscles, cash: Busted Qld social media influencers named
They are the Queenslanders who boast up to 400,000 followers on social media, showing off their enviable lives of high-society, fame and muscle, but that turned sour when each were forced to face the courtroom. Now their identities and bust ups can be revealed. Full list.
Police & Courts
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Naivety mixed with big cheques and a bigger following can be a “recipe for disaster” for influencers whose high-flying lives have come crashing down in the courtroom, experts say.
Between drug charges, drink driving and even stealing offences – a number of Queensland social media personalities have ended up on the wrong side of the law.
Karen Sutherland, a senior lecturer in public relations at the University of the Sunshine Coast, said influencers needed to be cautious about the pressures and pitfalls of social media.
“It’s like this weird combination where the world becomes just about creating content so they get this sort of blurred line between online and offline,” Dr Sutherland said.
“Some of them end up doing these amazing deals with brands and are being paid large sums of money so they have this huge audience and their whole world becomes about creating more and more content.
“So if they’re not surrounded by the right people who keep them grounded, and if they’re quite young, it can be a recipe for disaster.
“Their lives become about creating content but then they feel almost superhuman because they’ve got all these followers and then they forget that whatever they’re posting on the internet is there forever.”
Dr Sutherland said some influencers have managed to bounce back from controversy, while others have lost money and followers.
“The brands can walk away pretty quickly and sometimes their followers can too,” Dr Sutherland said.
“Sometimes they end up being more notorious and getting more followers, or they just leave in droves.”
Former Married and First Sight reality star Ines Basic now has a following of more than 250,000 people, despite pleading guilty three years ago to drink driving on Christmas Day.
In an extraordinary courtroom exchange, Magistrate Deborah Vasta told Basic that whatever show she had been on was “not real life” and she hoped a community services order would give her some perspective.
“It sounds like you’ve been living in a bubble of artificiality. And I just want you to get back to the basics,” she said.
“I hope you wake up tomorrow, watch the sunrise and consider that you’re just another human being on this massive planet just spinning in space.
“Get some perspective on life.”
Social media influencers who have landed in court
CONVICTIONS RECORDED
Kate Szepanowski
Followers: 84,400
Gold Coast Instagram influencer Kate Szepanowski said she had just come from meeting her “sugar daddy” when she was pulled over by police in Sydney.
When officers searched her car they found thousands of dollars of cash in her handbag, what they suspected to be traces of cocaine in a freezer pouch, Xanax tablets and a number of mobile phones scattered about the vehicle
Szepanowski, the sister of popular wellness vlogger Chloe Szepanowski, was due to face a Sydney court in June 2019 but did not show up.
In her absence, the magistrate convicted her of possessing a prohibited drug for the Xanax, and for possessing unlawfully obtained goods.
She was fined a combined $350.
Garry James Turner
Followers: 402,000
An Insta-famous personal trainer narrowly avoided jail after he peddled steroids as a side gig.
Former schoolteacher Garry James Turner pleaded guilty to nine counts of supplying dangerous drugs, including testosterone and a growth hormone, over six months in 2018.
The value of all the drugs supplied was more than $6000.
The court heard Turner, of Coomera, had worked as a teacher for 13 years before entering the world of professional bodybuilding and was running a coffee shop and fixing up campervans.
He was sentenced to two years’ jail but with immediate parole.
In March 2021, he also pleaded guilty to possessing steroids but was convicted without further punishment.
Jaxon Kade Tippet
Followers: 160,000
A Gold Coast influencer, model and fitness coach found with more than 250 steroid tablets and vials of testosterone in Tewantin was fined a total of $4000.
Jaxon Kade Tippet, who also has his own podcast, fronted Southport Magistrates Court in March, 2018 after he was charged for possessing steroids.
Tippet pleaded guilty to six counts of possessing a dangerous drug, two counts of driving unlicensed and one count of failing to properly dispose of a syringe.
Tippet was fined $3500 for the drugs, $250 for each driving offence and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Convictions were recorded.
Amy Louise Wilkinson
Followers: 37, 600
The creator of a secret Facebook group was caught drunk behind the wheel with her two children in the car.
Amy Wilkinson, the co-founder of secret women-only group Bad Girls Advice, blew over three times the legal limit when she was stopped at Little Mountain near Caloundra in September 2020.
She pleaded guilty to driving under the influence.
Wilkinson was fined $1200 and she was disqualified from driving for six months.
A conviction was recorded.
Eugene Bradshaw
Followers: 7,321
A personal trainer turned businessman with thousands of online followers escaped a jail sentence in March after he was caught with a huge stash of steroids.
Eugene Bradshaw appeared in Brisbane Supreme Court in March 2021 where he was sentenced to two years’ jail with immediate parole after pleading guilty to supplying and possessing dangerous drugs.
Police found 80g of steroids and a small amount of cocaine when they executed a search warrant at Bradshaw’s Middle Park unit.
The court heard Bradshaw was only three subjects away from completing a Masters in physiotherapy when he “fell into bad company” and began taking drugs and partying five days a week at the Gold Coast.
Mikayla Noakes
Followers: 12,000
A bartender and Instagram influencer caught up in a cross-border drug syndicate was sentenced in Tweed Heads Local Court.
Mikayla Noakes pleaded guilty to four charges including participate criminal group contribute criminal activity, two counts of supply prohibited drug and possess prohibited drug.
The 20-year-old was among a group of seven accused of being part of a syndicate supplying cocaine across the Gold Coast and Tweed.
Noakes was sentenced in March 2021 to a 12 month intensive correction order with conditions to perform 100 hours community service and was fined $300.
Ty Clint Harris
Followers: 53,000
A well-known community blogger was lambasted by a magistrate for his “hostile, resistant and undermining” behaviour during a probation order.
Wynnum man Ty Clint Harris, who has a social media following of more than 53,000 for his personal blog The Bay Today, pleaded guilty in July last year to breaching the order.
He had previously been convicted and sentenced to 18 months’ probation for prior offending, which cannot be named for legal reasons.
According to a probation officer, Harris was afforded numerous opportunities to engage with his order but continued to show a “hostile, aggressive” attitude, refused to do homework and showed little benefit from the program.
For the breach, Harris was fined $1,500 with a conviction recorded.
CONVICTIONS NOT RECORDED
Karlee Ironside
Followers: 199,000
Gold Coast influencer Karlee Ironside was high on ice and Xanax when she crashed her car onto tram tracks at Surfers Paradise.
She tried to flee the scene but was stopped by security guards and was slurring her words when talking to police and unsteady on her feet.
She admitted to them she had taken ice and was found with a flick knife that she carried for “protection” from the more than one million people who followed her on social media.
As of March 2022, Ironside had 1.1 million followers on Facebook and almost 200,000 on Instagram.
Ironside pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a drug, unlicensed driving, and the possession of drugs, a pipe and a knife in a public place.
She was fined $2150, disqualified from driving for 13 months, ordered to pay $1624 to repair damages to tram tracks from the crash.
A conviction was not recorded.
Ines Basic
Followers: 252,000
Married At First Sight star Ines Basic was given a dressing down by a magistrate who labelled her an “absolute brat” after she pleaded guilty to drink driving and swearing at police on Christmas Day.
Basic, who has amassed more than 250,000 Instagram followers since the reality show, had been drinking vodka and champagne before the offending on December 25, 2018.
She was driven to Cleveland Magistrates Court in a Mercedes limo flanked by security for her sentence in March 2019.
Magistrate Deborah Vasta said Basic had behaved like an “absolute brat” who was living in a “bubble of artificiality”.
“I get you might have been drunk but it’s still no excuse,” she said.
Basic pleaded guilty to driving over the mid-range alcohol limit, contravening a police direction, commit public nuisance and driving without due care.
She was sentenced to complete 70 hours of community service and disqualified for driving for a further three months.
No conviction was recorded.
Daniel Langanis
Followers: 11,100
A social media influencer and Brisbane entrepreneur wound up in court pleading guilty to stealing something he could have easily afforded.
Daniel Langanis, who comes from a prominent, well-off family, pleaded guilty in Holland Park Magistrates Court in March 2020 to one charge of shoplifting.
Langanis was captured on CCTV footage leaving the store with $91.80 worth of groceries, including chicken thighs, Skittles and Milo.
He was placed on a six-month, $300 good behaviour bond. No conviction was recorded.
In September last year he also pleaded guilty to driving an uninsured and unregistered vehicle.
For the driving offence, Langanis was fined $350 and no convictions were recorded.
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