Fashion brand founder wins court appeal

The young co-founder of an Australian women's fashion brand has had a conviction for cocaine possession overturned after telling a judge she has no intention of using illicit drugs again.

Paris Jane Marchant, 22, addressed a Sydney court on Monday after pleading guilty to possessing 0.33 grams of cocaine at a party in October.

"On that night, it was definitely a lapse of judgment," she told Judge Mark Williams in Sydney's Downing Centre.

The co-founder of Generation Outcast Clothing, which has more than 700,000 followers on Instagram, was spared a conviction and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond in 2018 when caught with five MDMA capsules.

But unlike last time, she undertook an online course with rehabilitation service Odyssey House, which "opened my mind to a lot of it".

"I don't have any intention to use drugs again," she said, adding she didn't have a "drug problem".

"(I've learnt) that it's really bad. I've got a whole life ahead of me and if I continue with the use, even just for partying, it's detrimental."

The court heard that before the pandemic, Marchant travelled interstate and overseas, including to Bali and New York fashion week.

She was to meet suppliers in China in 2020, a year in which her business took a hit from pandemic restrictions.

The Crown contended Judge Williams would be "somewhat wary" about setting the conviction aside but accepted a good behaviour bond, as suggested by Marchant's lawyer, in its place wouldn't be a legal error.

Judge Williams scrapped the conviction imposed by a magistrate in December and instead placed Marchant on a two-year conditional release order.