An “extremely remorseful” embattled former reality TV personality wiped away tears as she avoided jail for fraud and drug offences in what she described as her “last chance”. Jordan Ray Finlayson wore a black dress, black blazer with beige heels as she faced Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on Friday to be sentenced for a litany of fraud and drug offences. The 33-year-old was a contestant on reality TV show Beauty and the Geek in 2011 before a descent into drugs, which culminated in her arrest last year for driving with ice in her system.
The former NRL cheerleader was subsequently released on bail under strict conditions which required her to report to police three times a week. However, police discovered she had falsified four medical certificates to avoid attending the police station as required. Officers thought the documents were legitimate until they were granted access to her phone and uncovered multiple medical certificates with obvious discrepancies.
Finlayson’s lawyer Matthew Eurell said his client accepted that doctoring the certificates to avoid complying with a court order amounted to “very serious offences”. “Ms Finlayson accepts what she did was wrong,” he said. “She is extremely remorseful”.
He asked the court to take into consideration that Finlayson committed the offences during “a time of great difficulty in her life”. “She was (struggling with) great drug addiction, she was self medicating, and she certainly wasn’t clear of m.