The glamorous ex-girlfriend of a popular Love Island UK contestant has avoided jail time after she was caught driving with cocaine in her system.
Stevie-Leigh Pich appeared in Waverley Local Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for driving a vehicle with an illicit drug present in her system in January.
The court appearance came nearly two years after the 25-year-old made international headlines for claiming she was still in a relationship with Love Island UK star Connor Durman when she applied for the show in 2020.
Pich, who has more than 20,000 followers on Instagram, tested positive for cocaine use during a drug test on a highway in eastern Sydney on January 30. Police stopped her at 8:30 pm while she was driving her VW Golf down Bunnerong Rd in Hillsdale.
The UK resident tested negative for alcohol but tested positive for cocaine. Apparently shocked by the result, Pich told officers that she “hadn’t done it in about two weeks.”
After receiving a court attendance notice, Pich failed to appear in court and was sentenced in her absence. She was fined $1,500 and disqualified from driving for six months.
The Instagram influencer immediately requested that the conviction be overturned, but upheld her guilty plea.
Three days before her first court appearance, she shared a photo with her 20,000 Instagram followers with the caption “as innocent as she looks.”
On Wednesday, Waverley Court heard that Pich had suffered a “great degree of guilt and shame” over the crime.
Her lawyer, Hisham Karnib, told the court that the 25-year-old was being treated by her doctor for anxiety and depression.
“I won’t go so far as to say that he has a mental health condition,” he said.
“It is something that she is seeking treatment for now.”
Karnib told the court that her client was not stopped because she was driving dangerously.
“She was clearly not affected by drugs,” he said.
Magistrate Ross Hudson stated that Pich had a “horrible traffic record”. He noted that the Eastgardens resident had committed 15 speeding violations in the past 18 months, though she had kept her record clean since she was driving with cocaine in her system in January.
In a letter to the court, Pich wrote: “I take this incredibly seriously and am incredibly disappointed in myself for not considering that they would still be in my system.”
Magistrate Hudson decided not to convict the glamorous 25-year-old, instead imposing an 18-month probation order that would bar her from further crime.
He strongly urged her to address her drug relationship and not go back to court.
“You say you don’t have a drug problem. I must say I disagree. Once bitten, twice shy,” she said.
“Don’t expect to go back to any court in this state and have more leniency than you just had.”
Karnib said his client aspired to work in real estate and hoped to travel abroad in the near future.
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