Arabella Del Busso: Former NRL WAG and reality TV star spills beans on ‘bloody awful’ time in clink

The Aussie April 13, 2024 4 min read

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Aye, this former NRL WAG and reality TV larrikin has copped threats with a shiv, been starved like a possum in a drought, and copped more strip searches than a nudist at a metal detector convention after getting banged up for pocketing $52,000.

In a fair dinkum handwritten letter dished up to the court, Arabella Del Busso reckons she’s been “shattered” and feels “ripped off” by the “bloody awful” reality of life behind bars. The 34-year-old stunner reckons her celeb status has made her a magnet for other inmates, who’ve been giving her the old “standover” routine, swiping her tucker and personal gear. She got her mug in the papers for dating former NRL star Josh Reynolds, but her fame turned into a national sport when she confessed she dished out a dodgy story about a miscarriage during their fling.

Del Busso’s been in the slammer since February, doing 20 months for pinching $52,000 from her boss while pulling shifts as a receptionist. But her stretch got slashed to a measly five months after she scored a win in the NSW District Court this week. “Bugger me,” the sheila let slip over the video link when she heard she still had three months left to do. In a letter she scribbled down in her cell under protective custody, the ex-NRL WAG whinged that doing time had been “a fair dinkum rough and bloody awful experience”. She reckoned she’s felt like a “sitting duck” because she’s gotta shower, take a leak, and strip off in front of other sheilas who know her mug thanks to her “big name”. The pro boxer explained in her letter, which she handed over to the court, that she’s been too scared to dob in her worries to the screws after she got “a nice little reminder about what a shiv feels like.” “I’m just trying to take it one day at a time and keep me head down, but it feels like I’m watching me back every bloody second,” she groaned in her handwritten note. Del Busso’s best mate, who yaps with her as often as twice a day, reckons the 34-year-old’s been picked on by the other lags who keep swiping her scoff.

In court, it came out that Del Busso reckoned she’d hand over her tucker to avoid a dust-up because she didn’t “want a clip round the ear” or “kick up a stink”. “Arabella’s as stressed as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs and she reckons this whole jail gig’s a flaming nightmare that just won’t end,” her mate scribbled in a statement. In her own letter, the model said she felt “ripped off” and “gutted” by the regular strip searches in the slammer, where two screws watch her like a hawk. “They make you flash your bra and chest,” she wrote. “Then it’s either drop your undies to your knees or chuck ’em off, bend over, spread your cheeks and hoist one foot up at a time.” Del Busso admitted she didn’t spill all the beans about her jail woes because she knew the screws would suss it out and she feared for her hide. “I feel like I’ve been knocked about, defeated, and left high and dry,” she told the court. “Every bloody day I’m on edge, wondering how the heck I’m gonna make it through.”

During her appeal, the court found out Del Busso’s been diagnosed with a case of the jitters and the blues. Judge John Pickering reckoned Del Busso had fair reason to be worried about her health and safety in stir but reminded everyone that the clink’s supposed to make folks think twice about doing dodgy stuff. “I get that every day in the can’s no picnic, and I’m sure it’s been a right hassle for the appellant. But she got herself into this mess,” he said. The judge also pointed out Del Busso’s a boxer, so you’d think she’d be able to handle herself better than most behind bars. In cutting her sentence, he took into account her mental health dramas and clean rap sheet, reckoning she’s no risk to the mob.

The court heard the model was doing the reception gig for Rheumatology Specialist Care at their haunts in Kogarah and Randwick when she cooked up a scheme to trouser tens of thousands of dollars. Between September 2019 and February 2020, she snaffled more than $52,000 through a rort that Judge Pickering said was “dead easy” and “should’ve been spotted a mile off”.

She told clients at the med centre multiple times that the card machine was on the blink and asked them to fork out in cash instead. “Sorry cobber, our card reader’s on the fritz so it’s cash only today, $170 ta,” she texted 18 patients. She pinched $35,785 from the med centre in Kogarah and $16,565 from the Randwick joint over five months before a boss caught wind of the dodgy books. Docs from court showed the lingerie model chucked $18,215 into her own bank accounts. Judge Pickering reckoned the theft was as subtle as a kick in the teeth and said there’s “no two ways about it” she swiped the cash “just to line her own pockets”. “There’s no excusing pinching cash from a small business, no matter how strapped for cash anyone is,” he said.

The court heard the model’s borrowed cash to pay back her old boss. “I’m mortified and fair dinkum sorry for what I did to me boss and not a day goes by where I don’t wish I could turn back the clock,” she told the court. “I’ve let meself down, but I’ve also let down me mates, family, and fans.” Del Busso’ll be sprung in July.