Paulini given 6-month suspended sentence over fake licence bribe
Fijian singer Paulini has been sentenced to a six month suspended jail sentence after the NSW Gang squad caught her bribing a government employee to obtain a fake driver's licence.
The Australian Idol favourite's court appearance comes after she pleaded guilty in September to one count of corruptly giving a benefit to an agent.
Paulini, whose full name is Paulini Curuenavuli, was starring in the hit musical
The Bodyguard when detectives served her with a court attendance notice in June this year.
It is a charge which carries a maximum penalty of seven years' jail.
Barrister Lisa Claire-Hutchinson said Paulini had penned a letter to Mount Druitt Local Court, apologising for her actions and for letting her fans down.
“[She] has reflected in her personal letter — on the extent to which her letting her fans down, in particular, her younger fans, has weighed upon her.” Ms Claire-Hutchinson also tendered an affidavit which made reference to how the singer had suffered a financial loss and missed out on job opportunities after her matter was reported widely in the media. She asked the courts to consider giving her client a section 10 bond, which means no conviction would be recorded but the police prosecutor opposed.
“This offence involved a high degree of premeditation, of planning and forethought,” the prosecutor said.
“She has been a convicted of a string of driving offences — she was looking for an easy way out essentially.
“If a conviction is not recorded, the wrong message will be sent to the community.”
Ms Claire-Hutchinson told the court Paulini had undergone “significant rehabilitation” and undergone a traffic offender's program before regaining another learner's permit in November.
“It is accepted from outset … the danger posed to the community by Ms Curuenavuli driving on an unrestricted licence when in fact she was a suspended driver,” she said.
Ms Claire-Hutchinson also noted the corrupt RMS official who had given out at least 40 fake licences had only been sentenced to 12 months of home detention. “Ms Curuenavuli joined in on or furthered an existing practice of corruption by Ms Vaifale — she was not the author, she did not come up with the idea,” she said.
“She is deeply contrite for the actions which she perpetrated.”
In August The Daily Telegraph revealed how the Fijian-born singer-songwriter was unwittingly netted during an investigation into an RMS employee who was giving fake licences to Rebels bikies. There is no suggestion Paulini has any links to a gang or bikie-related activity.
According to a police statement of facts, the 35-year-old had her learner's licence taken away from her in March, 2016 after she was caught driving on her learner's licence without a qualified driver or with her L-plates displayed. Desperate to keep driving, she then got the contact details of corrupt RMS employee through her cousin.
But little did the singer realise that corrupt RMS employee Faletausala Vaifale was being looked at as part of an investigation into a series of shootings in Western Sydney involving Rebels and Finks bikies in early 2016.
Strike Force Tombolo officers identified Vaifale after learning that she was distributing dozens of fake ¬licences to family, friends and Rebels bikies.
Paulini texted Vaifale on July 6, 2016 and the pair came to agreement whereby a AU$850 (FJ$1341) would be transferred into Vaifale's bank account in exchange for a class C unrestricted driver's licence.
According to the facts, Paulini then entered the Mount Druitt RMS centre on July 13 where she had her photograph taken and was then issued a fake licence. Before she was charged with the bribery offence, Paulini, had racked up 11 driving offences despite having ever only held a learner driver's licence
Court documents revealed she had been caught speeding twice, not displaying her L-plates three times and driving on a cancelled licence since she was first issued with a learner's licence in 2002.
Her driving record reveals that she was caught speeding in a school zone just 10 days before gang squad detectives charged her with corruptly getting a fake licence. Court documents obtained by The Daily
Telegraph ¬reveal Vaifale corruptly made a AU$34,582 (FJ$54,583) by doling out 46 fraudulent licences to family members, friends and bikies between June 2015 and her arrest in July 2016.
She usually made between $500 and $2000 for each corrupt transaction but she was found with $1600 cash from a deal she had made just minutes before she was arrested¬ at work on July 22 last year.
Paulini shot to fame during the first season of Australian Idol where she was bodyshamed for wearing a tight, gold dress by judge Ian “Dicko” Dickson.
He was slammed for telling the then 20-year-old to “choose more appropriate clothes or shed pounds”.