‘The Bachelorette’ star sentenced after being busted with 144kgs of drugs

Former Bachelorette contestant Samuel Minkin has been sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order after pleading guilty to drug charges.

Minkin, 27, was arrested in December 2022 after police allegedly found him in possession of 144kgs of cannabis in nine boxes and 322 individually vacuum-sealed in the van he was driving south of Byron Bay. At the time of the charges, Minkin told police that the items were “extra household stuff he picked up from Bondi”, and added that it was “basically rubbish”.

Minkin appeared in the Downing Centre District Court on Monday, where he pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing a prohibited drug and taking part in supplying a prohibited drug, namely cannabis, larger than a commercial quantity.

He was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order, which will include drug rehabilitation and community service.

“He is not indispensable in terms of his personal characteristics; he had the role of being a courier driver and there’s nothing to indicate he had any pre-existing involvement in the syndicate,” Judge Hunt said.

“(He had) a lack of naivety or lack of sophistication.”

The judge added: “Mr Minkin has some limited social and media notoriety apparently as a result of him being engaged in a reality TV show,” the judge said.

“He is described in various articles as being a ‘Bachelorette star’ which is a reference to the reality TV show that apparently gave him some media profile.”

Minkin is best known for appearing on the Elly and Becky Miles season of The Bachelorette back in 2017. He was one of the first contestants eliminated in the competition, which Frazer Neate and Peter Mann went on to win. Both women broke up with their final picks shortly after filming wrapped.

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