Sydney eyebrow queen Kristin Fisher overturns drug possession conviction

Sydney beauty queen Kristin Fisher missed three court dates because the slip she received when cops caught her in the middle of a drug deal went missing from her fridge door, a court has heard.

The Double Bay socialite on Wednesday successfully overturned a drug possession conviction imposed after she missed her third straight court date in September.

After finally appearing in person at Waverley Local Court, she admitted to her “dreadful mistake” and was re-sentenced to a six-month bond with a condition not to use drugs.

The 36-year-old, who has amassed a following of 60,000 on social media, was caught picking up drugs in a police dial-a-dealer sting on Curlewis St, Bondi on July 17.

Court documents revealed police found her in the back seat of a dealer’s car with a two bags of cocaine by her feet, and officers “strongly suspected they had disturbed a drug transaction”.

“The accused was frantic in the passenger seat, attempting to leave the vehicle and evade police interaction,” the documents state.

Neither Fisher nor the 19-year-old woman driving the Kia Rio could explain why they were there.

Fisher was charged with possessing a prohibited drug, and was also issued a penalty infringement notice for breaching the public health order for leaving home without a reasonable excuse.

The glamorous mother-of-two was convicted and fined $550 at Waverley Local Court on September 21 after she failed to appear before the court for third time, having also missed dates in July and August.

But the conviction was overturned after lawyer Michael Bowe argued she had frantically searched for the yellow court attendance notice after it disappeared from her fridge door.

Mr Bowe said she had pinned it there with a magnet, “as she always did”, but suspected one of her children had moved it.

The court heard Fisher had not expected the court matter would “just go away” if she ignored it and had regularly checked the letterbox for police correspondence.

She had immediately paid the $1000 fine for breaching health orders, the court heard.

Magistrate Ross Hudson granted Fisher’s application to annul her sentence and allowed Mr Bowe to argue why she should not be convicted.

That was despite Mr Hudson saying he had given her the benefit of the doubt twice before and labelling repeated failures to appear in court as simple “mismanagement”.

He told the court Fisher was also emailed an updated court notice, prompting her to interrupt and ask how the address had been spelt “because I didn’t get it”. Mr Bowe raised his hand to gesture her to stop speaking.

Mr Hudson did say, however, the first scheduled court appearance – on July 17 – would have been “impossible”to attend as it was the same day she was charged.

Fisher then pleaded guilty and was re-sentenced, with the court hearing she had been picking up the cocaine for a friend.

The court heard she had endured a tumultuous 18 months including a marriage breakdown, the death of her friend and general manager and dealing with business struggles due to the pandemic.

“She wakes up every morning worrying about what’s happening and gets calls from her employees and other people looking for money,” Mr Bowe said.

After being caught in the sting in July she came home and sat in silence due to her deep remorse and embarrassment, the court heard.

Mr Bowe said she was a successful businesswoman who had forged a career for herself from a young age, and detailed her charitable exploits including helping to raise $250,000 for bushfire victims.

The Western Australian-raised beautician was also devising a fund that would see one per cent of her profits go to an Indigenous foundation she was working to establish, the court was told.

She was excited to get out of lockdown and put her business, which employs 12 people, back on track.

Mr Hudson said it was clear Fisher relied on her reputation in the business world and incidents like this showed that although it took years to build a name “it takes seconds to destroy”.

He said hers was a “classic” dial-a-dealer case, saying he believed the eastern suburbs community must be “fed up” with drug deals taking place on their streets.

“People who just think cocaine and other drugs are just accepted, they’re part of a night out. They are not, they are illegal,” he said.

“Hopefully now you can reflect on that.”

Fisher will serve a six-month community release order.