After selling cocaine to fuel her $1000-a-day drug habit and photographing her criminal activity, a Sydney woman says she wants to help addicts upon release from prison.
Alexandra Moss, 28, dealt illicit drugs out of her one-bedroom rented unit in Rose Bay in 2021 before her arrest by the NSW Police.
She appeared for sentence at Downing Centre District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to one count of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, namely over half a kilogram of cocaine.
She also pleaded guilty to one count of supplying a prohibited drug, 1,4-butanediol, which she referred to as "G".
Moss admitted selling the cocaine but said a friend of hers was the true dealer of the G, which she had never seen or used before.
The substance was delivered to her home in a 25-litre blue plastic jug and decanted into glass Santa Vittoria mineral water bottles.
One of her contacts said the drug could fetch around $3000 per litre on the streets.
Her knowledge about the G was naive, the court heard, including having to look up the drug's freezing point on Wikipedia.
Photographs and footage seized by police show Moss holding up drugs wearing a bikini, her drug dealing associate decanting the G, and piles of money on her floor.
Defence barrister Phillip Boulten SC said Moss had been humiliated by media coverage which included "titillating photographs" of her in the bikini.
Claims she was wealthy and an "heiress" because of her family connections could also endanger her in jail, he said.
Mr Boulten said his client sold drugs and took clients as a sex worker to fuel her drug habit in which she was using up to $1500 worth of cocaine daily.
"She was a very ingrained drug user at that time. She was undoubtedly selling the drug to maintain her very extensive drug habit," he told Judge John Pickering.
The cocaine was used as a form of self-medication for her then untreated ADHD, he added.
"It was a form of self-medication which destroyed her dignity, destroyed her self-worth, destroyed her career prospects, and led her into very, very degrading life circumstances," Mr Boulten said.
The Tweed Heads woman had not profited from selling drugs with the "lion's share" going back into using her own stock, he said.
"It's an extremely sad situation for a young woman to have been in."
Giving evidence in court, Moss said she now regretted and understood the harm of her actions.
"I feel ashamed, I feel disgraced, and I feel very disappointed in myself for my behaviour."
Mr Boulton accepted Moss should go to jail, but downplayed the seriousness of her conduct.
"She was not employing. She didn't have a network of gophers or drivers. She was the one who was exposed," he said.
The barrister noted Moss had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and would suffer harsher conditions while behind bars, including being unable to access medication.
Since being arrested and let out on bail two days later, Moss had spent about five months in drug and alcohol rehabilitation and had progressed her way through a criminology degree.
"At the end of this, I was hoping to become a case worker so I can help people not make the same mistakes," she told the court.
Judge Pickering will deliver his decision on Friday afternoon.
