Robbery, torture, drug smuggling: Gold Coast’s beauty therapists gone bad
From drug smuggling in Indonesia, to torture and scamming credit card details from a client – these are the Coast’s beauty therapists gone bad. THEIR CRIMES >>
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From drug smuggling in Indonesia, to scamming credit card details from a client –
here are beauty workers and students who had to face court for their actions.
One women kidnapped, tortured and robbed an international tourist – another spent her ill-gotten gains on technology and handbags.
See the full list of beauty workers that have made their way through Gold Coast courts.
Schapelle Corby
This former Gold Coast beauty student became a polarising Australian cultural icon after she was convicted of smuggling cannabis into Indonesia.
In 2004, customs officers at the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar found 4.2kg of cannabis inside Schapelle Corby’s insecure bodyboard bag.
Despite publicly maintaining the drugs were planted without her knowledge, the case divided the nation.
A Nielsen poll in 2010 found almost 50 per cent of respondents didn’t know whether they believed Corby smuggled the drugs, while one in 10 said they believed she was innocent.
Corby was released on parole in February 2014 after spending nine years locked up.
She returned to Australia in 2017.
The convicted drug smuggler has since turned her national recognition into a lucrative reality television career – appearing on SAS Australia and Dancing With The Stars.
Casey Jade Leather
A Gold Coast beautician scammed the credit card details from a client while she had her eyes closed for eyelash extensions.
Casey Jade Leather then went on a spending spree, splashing out $6600 over six days in 2019 on an Apple Watch, Xbox, Samsung sound bar, MIMCO handbags and wallets, Ugg boots, clothes and kids play sets.
Leather pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court in September 2019 to 19 fraud charges and one count of possessing dangerous drugs.
A woman was having her eyelashes done and unable to open her eyes when Leather stole the cards.
After taking down the details, Leather then returned the cards to the woman’s wallet.
Magistrate Jane Bentley sentenced Leather to six months in prison, to be wholly suspended for 12 months.
She ordered Leather pay $3808 in restitution.
Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie
A hairdresser and owner of two Gold Coast beauty salons walked free from court after a tourist was lured from a Noosa resort, held and tortured.
In February, Katrina Patricia Nadine Gorrie, 33, was sentenced to three years in jail with immediate release on parole for her involvement in the five-hour ordeal on April 14, 2019.
Maroochydore District Court heard the mum-of-two and business owner had known co-offender Timothy Andrew Butler for just days when they coaxed a tourist they met at Sofitel Noosa into a hatchback.
Crown prosecutor Christopher Cook said Butler drove for five minutes before he began swearing and yelling at the man from Sydney.
Butler then began punching the man in the head.
“Stop being a pussy,” Gorrie told the tourist as he pleaded for his freedom.
Butler continued to drive around for hours, calling the tourist names and periodically assaulting him.
Gorrie stole the tourist’s wallet and demanded his card pin before Butler withdrew $1000 from the man’s account about 3am.
The tourist was eventually left at Tewantin about 5.30am after Butler made death threats to him about contacting authorities.
Gorrie advertised the hatchback involved for sale on Facebook days after the ordeal.
She was arrested on the Gold Coast on April 24, 2019, when she denied her involvement.
Mr Cook said Gorrie was a party to the violence perpetrated by Butler because she aided and enabled his behaviour.
Butler was sentenced in September to six years in jail for torture and will be eligible for parole in May next year.
Gorrie pleaded guilty to seven charges including one count of deprivation of liberty and three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm in company.
She had spent 227 days in pre-sentence custody.
Defence barrister Nicholas McGhee said his client had struggled with alcohol abuse since she began binge-drinking as a teenager and most of the offending on her criminal history was alcohol-related.
No conviction recorded
Nikitah Kae Beadman
A beauty therapist described in court her troubled upbringing and admitted to using drugs as a child during sentencing for fraud and drugs charges.
She was also once tortured then bound and gagged and found by police in a shipping container on a remote property in 2012.
Nikitah Kae Beadman pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court last year to seven charges including fraud and possessing dangerous drugs.
It was the third time Beadman escaped a conviction after facing court for previous stealing and drug offences.
The latest appearance involved Beadman and her co-accused partner trying to pass off a dodgy smartphone for a brand new one.
The court was told Beadman listed a new iPhone 11 on Facebook Marketplace for sale on March 1, 2020.
The following morning the pair met a man at the Broadbeach light rail station and swapped the phone for $550.
Police prosecutor Senior Constable Daniel McShane said as the buyer turned and walked away, Beadman and her partner fled.
He said when the man opened the bag he found an old iPhone with a cracked screen, wrapped in cling wrap.
Police later found the pair on March 4 last year where Beadman told officers she listed the phone for sale for her partner but was unaware it was an old phone.
Snr Const. McShane said two months later on May 25 she was found by police with multiple drugs including GHB, ice, Xanax and marijuana.
The court was told Beadman started using drugs at 12 but it had only recently escalated.
Defence solicitor Patricija Nedeljko, from Gatenby Criminal Lawyers, said Beadman had a difficult childhood because her mother was in and out of mental health hospitals and relied on her grandfather for support.
Ms Nedeljko said Beadman left school and the family home at 12 after her grandfather died.
She said Beadman had since completed a diploma of beauty therapy and opened her own business in 2017.
Magistrate Cameron McKenzie noted Beadman co-operated with police, her difficult upbringing and plan to return to detox.
Beadman was sentenced to probation for 12 months. A conviction was not recorded.
Pham Van Anh Nguyen
A Burleigh nail salon owner had the claws out when her relationship with her business partner went south.
The long-running spat turned physical when Pham Van Anh Nguyen smashed her business partner’s phone and assaulted her in August 2018.
The Southport Magistrates Court was told things had soured so much the “two women could not get along”.
The nail salon was sold after the attack.
Nguyen pleaded guilty to common assault and wilful damage.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Reece Foort said the pair were arguing about the finances of Unique Nail Lounge about 1pm on August 12, 2018.
He said Nguyen took the other woman’s phone “because she believed the victim was taking recordings and videos of her”.
“(Nguyen) wanted them deleted,” Sgt Foort said.
During a struggle the woman’s iPhone X fell to the ground and smashed.
Sgt Foort said the phone was worth more than $1800.
Nguyen’s lawyer Daniel Hua, of Cridland and Hua Lawyers, said the two women had a “long history of animosity”.
He said they met in 2016 when they were working at a nail salon in Pacific Fair.
Mr Hua said the pair had a falling out and did not see each other for two years.
But they resumed their friendship in 2018 and decided to open a nail business together.
Mr Hua said the pair had the shop up for sale in August last year but kept working together until it was sold in May.
He said there were no incidents in that time.
Magistrate Pamela Dowse fined Nguyen $500 and ordered she pay $1800 restitution.
No conviction was recorded.
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