The bong-smoking pregnant star of the TV show Struggle Street is again behind bars today after pleading guilty to shoplifting charges. She has also been charged with assault, wielding a knife on a public street and stalking and intimidating.
Billie Jo Wilkie, 26, appeared in Mt Druitt Local Court dressed in jailhouse greens, bail refused after being arrested on charges relating to a shoplifting spree.
She pleaded guilty to the shoplifting charges and received a prison sentence, but is yet to face court on the knife, stealing and assault allegations to which she has pleaded not guilty.
Wilkie sent shockwaves around the country in May 2015 when she appeared, heavily pregnant and smoking a makeshift bong, during filming of the SBS series, Struggle Street.
The court heard on Monday that Wilkie has had both heroin and ice addictions since causing a storm of public outrage with her TV debut getting high while pregnant sitting on a toilet chatting to her mother, Carlene.
Wilkie, who also was seen breaking into a room “to get the cone piece for the bong,” featured on the show with her then boyfriend Bob Quinn.
Struggle Street’s premiere season featuring the couple was set in Sydney’s downtrodden western suburbs of Willmot, Mt Druitt and Lethbridge Park, where Wilkie lived with Mr Quinn.
Wilkie and Mr Quinn admitted to news.com.au they were both high on ice during filming and had bought methamphetamines with welfare money freed up when SBS paid for their food and phones.
Slammed by some as “poverty porn”, Struggle Street followed the lives of people who were mostly jobless, welfare dependent and living tough lives.
The court heard this week Wilkie “has never had a job” and that in July she raided a series of shops with a male accomplice, who she was now living with in the suburb of Bidwill.
Wilkie was sentenced after pleading guilty of stealing with her co-accused from shops at Westfield Mt Druitt, taking denture cleaners, travel padlocks, make-up and fishing equipment.
Mt Druitt court heard Bilie Jo Wilkie had allegedly been “wielding a knife in a street in the direction of” a man she allegedly stalked and intimidated and assaulted at Willmot.
She has pleaded not guilty to three charges relating to alleged actions against a man in May this year.
Wilkie was further charged and pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, Magistrate Leanne Robinson saying she had “a long history of driving offences”.
This is despite the fact Wilkie’s court documents state “she does not hold nor ever has held a NSW driver’s licence” and is “disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence [until] 21 May 2036”.
The court heard Wilkie, who Magistrate Robinson also noted has a “pretty extensive record for larceny and shoplifting”, was first imprisoned for driving charges several years ago.
Then aged 22, Wilkie was caught driving while disqualified twice in one day.
She was arrested less than 24 hours after she appeared on the Struggle Street TV show, caught by Mt Druitt police driving an unregistered car at 3.30pm.
She was then pulled over six hours later for a random breath test, which she passed.
In 2016, Wilkie and Bob Quinn told news.com.au they had both managed to get off their lives of “misery” on methamphetamines.
Billie Jo spent 13 months in prison for four driving offences, serving time in three different prisons.
She was imprisoned at Silverwater Women’s correctional centre where she met drug offender, Harriet Wran.
Along with Ms Wran’s notoriety, being the daughter of late NSW Premier Neville Wran, Wilkie “copped it in jail” for her brief TV fame.
She said women inmates would yell out “hey Struggle Street, there goes Struggle Street”.
She also said she took drugs in jail, such as ice and Buprenorphine, a drug distributed to heroin addicts.
She finally gave up drugs six months before her release, but the court heard this week she has been “struggling with substance abuse and had no money to buy items” when she went shoplifting.
Police allege in court documents that Wilkie and her co-accused went to Mt Druitt Westfield on the afternoon of Friday, July 26 and at 4.15pm entered Kmart separately.
Wilkie had a red backpack and carried shopping bags, while her accomplice had a black backpack and a large black overnight bag.
From the shelves, he allegedly took multiple Jarvis Walker brand fishing tackle items, including hooks, lines and sinkers for catching shrimp, bream, whiting and flathead, worth a total of $99.
The pair then entered The Reject Shop with Wilkie stealing electric toothbrushes, toothpaste, gift bags and travel padlocks, worth a total of $84.46.
At 4.49pm, Wilkie walked out of the shop and with her accomplice exited Westfield to sit on the stairs of the car park where he pulled receipts from his pockets and placed them on top of the items.
Entering Coles at 5.01pm, the court documents allege he stole four packets of Drover’s Choice rump steak and a bottle of Daily Juice, worth a total of $54.70.
It is then alleged that in a Priceline store at 5.09pm, Wilkie and the male collaborated to steal a Gillette Fusion Proglide Power razor and Polident toothpaste, and left for adjacent Dawson Mall.
Police in the mall recognised the male and arrested him.
The male told police he was waiting for a female friend, giving them another woman’s name.
But when police looked at CCTV from the stores they “immediately recognised Billie Jo Wilkie”.
Mt Druitt Police arrested Wilkie, who was taken into custody on August 3.
She was due to face a hearing on the knife, assault and stalking charges against a man on Monday.
However the court heard the complainant had an outstanding police bench warrant and was unable to be contacted, and Magistrate Robinson adjourned the hearing until later this year.
Solicitor Sarah Salman told the court Billie Jo Wilkie had a “background of trauma”.
She had a sister die from motor neurone disease in 2014, and a brother die last year from an overdose of pain killers after a car accident.
“Her current focus is to get off drugs,” Ms Salman said, “she has been struggling with drugs since the age of 13.
“She uses drugs to cope. She has never had a job but she would like to [work].”
Magistrate Robinson sentenced Wilkie to seven months prison on one charge of driving while disqualified, one charge of shoplifting and three of shoplifting, joint commission.
Wilkie has pleaded not guilty to larceny of a vacuum cleaner and Foxtel set top box at Bidwill in July.
She will be released from prison after a three month non-parole period expires, to face court on the knife and stalking charges.
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