Grill’d co-founder Geoff Bainbridge sensationally quit his job as managing director of Lark Distillery after a video of him smoking illicit drugs circulated on social media.
Shortly after the leaked video emerged, Bainbridge claimed that it was taken in South East Asia in 2015 as part of an extortion racket.
However, The Australian has uncovered property records and discovered that the background furniture from a house that Bainbridge owned looks to be the same furniture that’s in the background of the “meth pipe” video.
Bainbridge bought a home in Melbourne’s Middle Park in July 2020 for $3.465 million. In videos seen by The Australian the publication reports that photos from the house listing show unique features that match those that appear in the “meth video”.
One clip of the video shows Bainbridge lighting up a glass pipe and saying, “Let’s get fucking high together baby. I’d smoke meth and just blow it all over your c**t, babe.”
Bainbridge said that the videos were taken on a wild night out with seven strangers while overseas, who later extorted him for around $9000.
“The reality for me is there is footage of me consuming class-A drugs in a foreign country. That has serious ramifications,” he said at the time.
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After resigning from his position at Lark Distillery in light of the incident, Bainbridge has continued to assert that he is a victim of extortion.
“Although I consider myself a victim of a crime, I accept that I am also responsible for the circumstances I find myself in,” he said in a statement.
“Ultimately, I put myself in a situation I shouldn’t have been in. I’m a victim of extortion but that wouldn’t have occurred without my poor judgment. I am deeply remorseful for my own actions.″
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