Sign on the times for Michaella
Smuggler seeks new line of work
COCAINE mule Michaella Mccollum finds herself back behind the barbed wire… as she goes to the Jobcentre.
Mccollum, 24, who was jailed in Peru in 2013 over a €1.8million smuggling plot, appears to be living on benefits eight months after being allowed home.
In recent weeks she has been photographed frolicking on the beach and sipping cocktails on sunshine breaks in Ibiza and Marbella.
But as she arrived at the Jobcentre this week, passing through its high-security entrance, a fellow job hunter revealed: “Michaella didn’t look happy to be joining the dole queue.
“I was surprised to see her there after all the photos of her enjoying herself on holidays abroad.”
If she is signing on, Mccollum could expect €69-a-week Jobseeker’s Allowance. Older claimants receive €87.
HIDDEN
The blonde party girl from Dungannon, Co Tyrone, made headlines in August 2013 when she and pal Melissa Reid were caught trying to smuggle 11kg of the class A drug from South America to Spain.
The pair – who became known as the Peru Two – were found with the cocaine hidden in food packets in their luggage as they prepared to board a flight from Lima to Madrid.
They initially claimed a gang on the Spanish party isle of Ibiza had forced them to carry out the plot after making gun threats to them and their families.
But the pair pleaded guilty after being told they could otherwise be jailed for up to 15 years.
The former photography student was given six years in jail. She was released on parole in March last year after serving 27 months.
She was ordered to stay in Peru, where she carried out voluntary work, but was allowed to return home in August.
In an exclusive interview with the Irish Sunday Mirror at the time, Mccollum admitted they had willingly taken part after being offered cash.
She said she now takes full responsibility for her crime, adding: “What I went through was completely my fault – and I lost three years of my life. You get an adrenaline high because you’re doing something you know you shouldn’t. No one put a gun to my head.
“Now I have to prove to the people I love that I’m responsible and that I’m sorry for what I put them through.
“I hope it makes people think twice about doing anything as stupid.”
Since returning home, Mccollum – who had worked as a model and dancer on the Spanish island – is understood to have been hoping to capitalise on her notoriety by becoming a reality TV star. There has also been speculation she was being considered as a host for a TV crime show.
And she is believed to be considering a €300,000 tell-all book deal.
But claims she was in the frame for Celebrity Big Brother have been denied by the show’s makers.
Her fellow jobseeker added: “Hopefully the offers are true because, to be honest, watching Michaella walk into the job centre was a sad sight. It’s a really grim place from the outside – and ironically resembles a prison with all its security barriers. “It’s all a world away from the glamorous party lifestyle she enjoyed in Ibiza before her arrest.”