The Bachelorette Australia 2020‘s Samuel Minkin has learned his fate in court after he was busted transporting nearly 150 kilograms of cannabis to Queensland in 2021.
Minkin fronted Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on May 15 after pleading guilty to a charge of possessing a prohibited drug and taking part in supplying a prohibited drug larger than a commercial quantity.
Judge Warwick Hunt told the court the 30-year-old was found with an encrypted device containing the platform An0m. The app is used by criminals to communicate.
The court heard that Minkin was provided with the An0m device on May 26, 2021. It was used to communicate with another man who asked him to pick up the prohibited drugs from a property in Sunshine, Victoria, by 8 am the next day.
On the drive back to Queensland, the can broke down on the Hume Highway. Minkin was then instructed to get it towed to an address in Minto, in Sydney’s southwest.
Judge Hunt revealed that a “substitute van” was organised and Minkin met with a man who he then travelled to Queensland with.
How did The Bachelorette‘s Samuel Minkin get caught?
NSW Police clocked the van around 5 am entering the M1 Motorway and soon pulled it over at Crabbes Creek.
Police located nine wrapped boxes in the back of the vehicle, which Minkin claimed were full of “extra household stuff he picked up from Bondi”. He added that it was “basically rubbish”.
He told police that he had moved to Queensland and needed to organise the final items left at his Bondi house and sort out the bond.
“[Police] formed reasonable suspicions the vehicle may have contained drugs,” Judge Hunt told the court.
Both Minkin and the other man claimed not to know what was in the nine boxes. The judge described these as being “packed neatly”.
It was revealed that the boxes contained 322 vacuum-sealed bags of cannabis leaf, with a total weight of 144.247 kilograms.
Police also found .035 grams of ketamine in a bag belonging to Minkin.
The former reality star was arrested and relied on his right to silence until he could communicate with a lawyer.
Minkin later alleged he did not know the amount of drugs exceeded 100 kilograms. However, he was aware they weighed more than 25 kilograms.
Judge Warwick Hunt sentenced Samuel Minkin
“The agreed facts indicate this was the first time Mr Minkin had experience in couriering drugs on behalf of the syndicate,” Judge Hunt told the court.
The judge said there was a level of sophistication in the offence through the use of the encrypted devices. However, he added that Minkin’s role could be characterised as an “important role, but a role that could be replaced”.
“He is not indispensable in terms of his personal characteristics; he had the role of being a courier driver and there’s nothing to indicate he had any pre-existing involvement in the syndicate,” Judge Hunt said.
“(He had) a lack of naivety or lack of sophistication.”
According to the judge, Minkin had glowing references from patients he treats as a musculoskeletal therapist.
He noted that Minkin has “limited social and media notoriety” after being an early departure on Elly and Becky Miles‘ season of The Bachelorette.
“I am persuaded to have one’s reputation perhaps irretrievably linked to criminal misdeeds does more of the work of specific deterrence,” the judge said.
Judge Hunt convicted Minkin on both counts and sentenced him to a two-year Intensive Corrections Order, which is essentially a prison sentence to be served in the community.
Minkin was ordered to be of good behaviour and will have to undertake 400 hours of community service.
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