Former Australian Idol contestant Paulini Curuenavuli has pleaded guilty to bribing a Roads and Maritime Services employee for an unrestricted driver’s licence.
The guilty plea came as it was revealed in a western Sydney court on Monday the 34-year-old has clocked up 11 driving charges since she first got her learner’s licence in 2002.
The singer, who is playing the lead role in musical The Bodyguard, was in June issued a future court attendance notice accused of paying an RMS worker $850 in exchange for an unrestricted licence.
Wearing strappy high heels and leather pants, Curuenavuli pleaded guilty on Monday at Mount Druitt Local Court to corruptly giving benefit from an agent.
The offence carries with it a seven-year jail penalty.
Court documents show that since obtaining her learner’s licence 15 years ago, Curuenavuli has been caught several times driving unaccompanied while on her learner’s licence, speeding, driving while suspended and driving without displaying her learner plates.
After her licence was suspended in March last year, the Fijian-born singer made contact via text with Fale Vaifale who was working at the RMS centre in Mount Druitt at the time.
The two negotiated and agreed Curuenavuli would pay Vaifale $850 in exchange for an unrestricted drivers licence.
After the payment was made, the singer went to the Mt Druitt RMS centre where Vaifale allegedly added a fake United States licence number into the system, allowing her to produce an unrestricted NSW driver’s licence for Curuenavuli, court documents say.
Curuenavuli’s matter has been adjourned for sentencing on December 15, with the singer to complete a traffic-management course and drive, under supervision, the required 120 hours to complete the requirements of her learner’s licence before her next court date.
