A disgraced Sydney socialite collapsed in court when she described how she turned to sex work and drug sales to fund her $1,500-a-day drug addiction.
Alexandra Moss was sentenced to nearly two years in prison on Friday for dealing large amounts of drugs from her rental home in Rose Bay, Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The 27-year-old was arrested after police wiretaps revealed photos of her smiling and posing with bulging bags of cannabis, mounds of cocaine and boxes of GHB.
Police also discovered posts in which she brazenly discussed the delivery, storage and sale of drugs with friends and customers.
On Friday, Moss told NSW District Court that she was dealing drugs to feed her “incredibly bad (cocaine) habit,” which she estimates would have cost between $1,100 and $1,500 a day.
The former Eastern Suburb It-girl admitted to dealing illegal drugs between December 2020 and April 2021 to fund her “very expensive” addiction.
The court heard that she was dealing more than 500 grams of cocaine at the time and was in possession of more than 9.6 kg of 1,4-butanediol (a dangerous precursor to the ‘date rape’ drug GHB) when she was arrested.
Alexandra Moss (pictured) was sentenced to nearly two years in prison on Friday for dealing large amounts of drugs from her rental home in Rose Bay, Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Police discovered numerous photos and videos on Moss’s phone of drugs, including pictures of her with two bulging bags of cannabis next to her clearly visible and smiling face.
Judge John Pickering joked that she “made police life pretty easy” by recording her crimes on her phone.
“She’s basically incriminating herself by taking pictures and giving pretty strong breadcrumbs at her arrest,” he said.
The court heard that Moss had become involved with drugs at the age of 17 while working in a medical practice in Sydney.
“She came into contact with drugs from people who had nothing to do with using drugs, let alone supplying a teenage employee,” her attorney Phillip Boulten told the court.
“It’s a disgrace that happened to this … vulnerable young woman.”
The move sent Moss into a vortex of destruction as she began using cocaine every day.
The court heard the 27-year-old turned to sex work because it paid cash, what Judge Pickering called “the currency of the drug supply.”
Photos seized by police show Moss in possession of large amounts of cash, which she says she earned through sex work rather than supplying drugs.
Since she was arrested on the drug charges, the Rose Bay resident has been diagnosed with ADHD, society, depression, stimulant use disorder.
Police found photos of Moss decanting the GBL into individual bottles and of Moss uploading videos of large amounts of cocaine to her Snapchat
Mr Boulten argued that she had medicated her ‘undiagnosed cognitive impairment’ with cocaine, which calmed her down and enabled her to concentrate.
“It was a form of self-medication that destroyed her dignity, destroyed her self-esteem, destroyed her career prospects and put her in very degrading living conditions,” he said.
The defense attorney told the court that his client’s state of mind was “distorted” by her heavy daily use of cocaine and that she could not comprehend the impact of her offense.
Moss testified on Friday that she was “embarrassed” and “disappointed in herself,” but her arrest had been a wake-up call.
“I believe that because I was in such a drug state, my state of mind was not what it is now,” she said.
“I believe if I hadn’t been captured that day I would have overdosed.”
Judge Pickering accepted her evidence that she supplied drugs because she herself was a major cocaine user.
“The perpetrator is a good example of why cocaine should not be considered a good drug, a glamorous drug,” he said.
“Her life went on a downward spiral… and she’s probably going to have one of the worst days of her life here.”
The judge told Moss that supporting her habit by supplying a “considerable amount” of cocaine through Sydney “included her causing a great deal of misery to other people.”
She was arrested after police wiretaps revealed photos of her smiling and posing with bulging bags of cannabis and boxes of the ‘date rape’ drug GBL
Moss was also charged with supplying a large commercial quantity of gamma butyrolactane (GBL), another precursor to GHB, after police traced a large container of the liquid to her possession.
Judge Pickering ruled she had been “naive” about the drug, which was outside her comfort zone of cocaine and cannabis.
He told the court he was not convinced the 27-year-old supplied the drug to anyone.
“She knew she had a valuable asset, but she didn’t know how to use it,” he said.
The judge agreed that Moss’s mental health issues likely contributed to her “impulsive decision-making.”
He acknowledged that imprisonment would likely result in “significant deterioration in her mental state” as a result of her mental health diagnoses, but he stressed that this was the only punishment for her transgression.
The former socialite previously spent two days in pre-trial detention before being released on bail.
On the day she was released, she told the court that she went back to her apartment and sniffed the leftover cocaine. She testified that she has not touched any illegal drugs since.
The court heard that Moss spent five months in rehab and worked full-time while studying criminology, trying to help others avoid the same mistakes she made.
She is the granddaughter of fashion expert Sandra Moss, the former owner of the Pretty Girl Fashion Group, which was part-owned by billionaire James Packer.
“As a perpetrator, you couldn’t have done more to get yourself out of the mire than she did,” Mr Boulten said.
Judge Pickering agreed that her commitment to rehabilitation, her mental health problems and her relative youth warranted a “very substantial determination of special circumstances.”
“Proven rehabilitation is much more impressive than promised rehabilitation,” he said.
He sentenced Moss to a maximum of four years and four months behind bars, with a non-parole period of 23 months.
The sentence was filed backdated to January 23 to take into account time spent in custody and rehabilitation, making the 27-year-old eligible for release in December 2024.
“I think you will probably live a successful life after this matter is resolved,” the judge told Moss.
Dressed in a black dress and blazer with dark lipstick, the former socialite sobbed into her scarf throughout the proceedings.
When she was taken into custody, she smiled through her tears and blew a kiss to her family and friends who had gathered in court.