Sydney bikini model Stevie Rochelle Franceska Bamford avoids jail over drug driving
A bikini model once jailed in Thailand for falsely accusing a tuktuk driver of rape has avoided a conviction for driving in Sydney with cocaine and ice in her system. The daughter of ex-league legend Peter Tunks says she wants to turn her life around.
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A bikini model once jailed in Thailand for falsely accusing a tuktuk driver of rape has avoided a conviction for driving in Sydney with cocaine and ice in her system.
Maroubra woman Stevie Rochelle Franceska Bamford — the daughter of former rugby league legend Peter Tunks — told The Daily Telegraph she planned to turn her life around and apply to get her licence back.
The 28-year-old interior design student had been picking her mother up from the airport when officers pulled her silver Ford Focus over on Malabar Rd, Coogee, just before 3pm on October 30 last year, Waverley Local Court heard.
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When the officers checked her licence they found it was suspended. They then did an oral fluid test for drugs and Bamford tested positive for methylamphetamine.
Police facts state she told officers: “I took it yesterday (at) a party.” Subsequent testing returned positive results for cocaine as well as ice.
Magistrate Michael Crompton sentenced Bamford on Wednesday to an 18-month conditional release order, with no conviction for the drug-driving charge.
He also revoked a good behaviour bond Bamford was placed on last year for assaulting a police officer who had been called to a Darlinghurst party when a brawl had broken out.
Mr Crompton then re-sentenced her to a six-month community corrections order for the police assault, which requires her not to commit any other offence.
Court documents state Bamford grabbed Sergeant William Collins’s face and scratched his neck while the police officer was restraining her now ex-boyfriend in May last year.
Sgt Collins then used capsicum spray on her before she was arrested. She later told officers: “I just got involved in something I shouldn’t have.”
Bamford made worldwide headlines in 2012 when she spent 15 days behind bars in a Thai prison for falsely claiming she was raped by a local taxi driver.
Her father was an NSW Origin and Kangaroo player in the 1980s.
Outside court, Bamford — who was dressed in a snakeskin shirt and zebra print heels — said she had completed drug and alcohol counselling and was “going to be good” from now on.
“I’m dealing with my problems and I’m much more mature now and I’m more aware of … the consequences from what partying does to your lifestyle,” she said.
“I’ve got rid of all the traumatic people out of my life. I’ve got one good friend and you just need a best friend who’s got your back and that is all you need because Sydney is full of haters. That was a really good outcome, I thought I was going to go to jail. I can go … now and get my licence.”
Originally published as Sydney bikini model Stevie Rochelle Franceska Bamford avoids jail over drug driving
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