A former Met Police officer has claimed ‘Britain’s criminal justice system is broken’ as a Netflix reality star avoided jail after being caught trying to smuggle drugs into the UK.
Olga Bednarska, 27, was arrested on a flight back from Thailand after customs officers at Manchester Airport caught her with 40kg of cannabis – worth £150,000 – in two large suitcases.
But the Too Hot to Handle star escaped having to go to prison, as the judge handed her a 20-month sentence, which was suspended for two years.
Many, including retired officer Norman Brennan, have been left shocked by the court’s decision.
‘Anyone that has bought two suitcases worth of cannabis into this country should be sent to prison,’ Mr Brennan told MailOnline.
‘There should be no excuse. There cannot be anyone reading this that wouldn’t have thought she should have gone to prison.’
The former policeman also believed Bednarska had ‘seen an opportunity to earn a good whack of money’ and the sentence sent a message for other criminals to ‘give it a go’.
Mr Brennan added: ‘I’m afraid she is one of many people that flout the law in a very serious way, knowing or believing very little will be done to them as far as punishment is concerned. This sentence supports that feeling or view.’
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 had 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.
‘If she was in debt, obviously she probably saw this as a good opportunity to earn a good whack of money,’ Mr Brennan said.
‘As far as I’m concerned, £150,000 worth of cannabis is a huge amount.’
Mr Brennan also pointed out the impact Bednarska’s actions could have had if she had not been caught at Manchester Airport.
He said: ”Not only do illegal drugs kill people. Many addicts will rely upon that, and to buy that they will shoplift. They will rob people, and they will steal to pay for their addiction.
‘Many people would have suffered as a result of those two suitcases of cannabis being brought into Britain.’
According to The Manchester Evening News, Bednarska claimed she was given the two suitcases 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.
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.
She 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.
The total weight was 39.4kg, which was said to be worth around £157,600.
The court heard Bednarska had no previous convictions and had been in custody since her arrest.
Judge Potter indicated to the court that he would pass a suspended sentence of imprisonment, and so no mitigation was advanced on Bednarska’s behalf.
Judge Potter said: ‘Over the course of the last few years, you have found yourself in financial difficulties. You have incurred debts to do with work, rent and other household costs. You have simply lived beyond your means.
‘Via a friend of a friend, you agreed to import designer goods from Thailand. You agreed to go and do this and return 10 days later. Your expenses were to be paid by others, and you were to be paid £18,000.’
‘You decided to place your trust in someone you hardly knew. You were acting under the direction of others, potentially for further profit.
‘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.’
As well as being handed a suspended sentence, Bednarska was also ordered to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity requirements.
Mr Brennan believed Judge Potter’s sentence sent the wrong message to those in the drug trade.
He said: ‘The only deterrent for such people is prison and to go to prison for a suitable amount of time. When others see that the courts and the criminal justice system don’t deem it that serious to such a degree that they don’t even send someone to prison.
‘Others will think “I’ll give it a go, nothing will happen to me,”. I’m afraid we have a criminal justice system in Britain that is broken.
‘The message judges should be sending out is we will accept in no uncertain terms that anybody who brings drugs into Britain which blights society and those that use drugs which feed the drugs trade by committing crime will be punished. There has to be a deterrent.
