Katie Price had breast-lifting and fat removal surgery at the BeClinic, Brussels five days prior to her appearance before a judge this week.

How on earth the bankrupt 43-year-old could afford the £15,000 worth of procedures, given that she owes her creditors £3.2 million, is quite a puzzle. 

Presumably she is not the one paying or that the treatments were provided as a reward for her public attention.

Perhaps even more interesting is the way she behaved in advance of her court date.

She admitted that she crashed her BMW X5 without insurance into a hedge in West Sussex while being disqualified sixth time for other offences and having been drunk with cocaine.

For the former glamour model, a spell behind bars would have been a safe bet.

But in court on Wednesday, a judge told the mother of five that while she ‘deserved’ to go to prison for her latest episode of lawbreaking, her ‘hands were tied’.

How on earth bankrupt model Katie Price, 43, has afford the £15,000 worth of procedures and several holidays this year, given that she owes her creditors £3.2 million, is quite a puzzle

How on earth bankrupt model Katie Price, 43, has afford the £15,000 worth of procedures and several holidays this year, given that she owes her creditors £3.2 million, is quite a puzzle

Price had admitted crashing her uninsured BMW X5 into a hedge near her West Sussex home while disqualified for the sixth time following previous offences, and while drunk and high on cocaine

Price admitted to having crashed her BMW X5 uninsured into a hedge close to her West Sussex house. She was also disqualified after previous offenses and drunk on cocaine

We will be discussing more of the legal maneuvering that allowed Price to walk away with a 16 week suspended sentence and community service order. 

Because it is a decision that has outraged many — including police, road safety campaigners and one of her ex-husbands — not least because, in reality, thrice-divorced Price has so far shown no convincing signs of changing her ways.

Take the fact that she hasn’t yet paid a penny of the fines incurred for all her previous driving offences, an amount standing at £7,358.

Next month she is due back at Crawley Magistrates’ Court; this time she will have to explain why she hasn’t paid up.

And despite being declared bankrupt in November 2019 after defaulting on £12,000-a-month repayments to her creditors, Price has managed to lap up the sun on multiple jaunts abroad this year. 

She was a fan of trips to Portugal and Turkey in May and Juni, as well traveling to Malaga (Spain), Turkey, and St Lucia.

She even managed to squeeze in a trip to Las Vegas between her two appearances before Crawley magistrates, hinting on social media that she was about to get married for the fourth time before flying home and re-entering The Priory for what she described on Instagram as a ‘well needed session’.

All in all, then, there appears to be little visible remorse about what was described in court as Price’s ‘chaotic’ life.

JPs decided to postpone sentencing because of her apparent composure when she presented herself in September. This was just hours after her 6am flip on the country road.

She was promised by her lawyers that she would enter rehab for alcohol and drug abuse. The lay members of their bench asked her to postpone her sentence and defer her punishment until after her rehab visit.

She was claimed to have needed her for five of her children (including Harvey, 19, who is handicapped). Amy, her mother of 69 years and a terminally ill woman with lung disease, also needed Amy. The JPs consented for reasons only they can understand. 

Price's five children, including 19-year-old Harvey, (pictured together) who is disabled, needed her, it was claimed in court

Price had five children including Harvey (19 years old), who was disabled. Price needed her help, court ruled.

Legally speaking, it was a masterstroke on the part of Price’s lawyer, Joe Harrington.

Solicitor and road law expert Nick Freeman — aka Mr Loophole, who has successfully defended celebrities facing driving offence charges including David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson — tells me ‘it was a smart move for which her lawyer should be congratulated’. 

He adds: ‘Whether or not the magistrates now feel they’ve done the right thing is a matter for them.’

If a defendant fails to follow the terms of the previous hearing, the judge will not be able to impose a sentence in a deferred sentencing case.

It doesn’t matter how many bags Price was carrying on shopping trips during his stay at The Priory in South-West London 2 months ago.

Or, that she flew straight from Las Vegas to Love Island with Carl Woods as her fiance. She then returned to the clinic three times over three years. Goodness only knows how she can afford the £7,000-a-week cost.

But as Freeman points out: ‘The magistrates could have refused to defer sentence. If it had been me, I’d simply have adjourned for pre-sentencing reports. All sentencing options would have been on the table, I would have said so. 

“Whoever the client’s lawyer was, did an outstanding job. They saved their client from going to prison over Christmas.’

Price didn’t know that she could avoid jail because of a legal technicality. 

While her friends feared she was in denial about jail in recent weeks as she splashed out more cash on Christmas preparations, one reported: ‘When she is asked, her response is that she has been to The Priory, and they will let her off because her family need her.’

Fancy legal footwork saw model Katie Price (pictured with Carl Woods leaving Crawley Magistrates' Court) walk free with a 16-week suspended sentence and a community service order

Katie Price and Carl Woods leave Crawley Magistrates’ Court in fancy legal footwork. Katie was given a 16-week suspension sentence as well as a community service order.

As things stand, then, Price is free to enjoy the festive season with her fiancé and family at ‘Mucky Mansion’, the £1.7 million nine-bedroom Arts and Crafts home in Horsham she bought from Tory minister Francis Maude in 2014, at the height of her fame. 

A housekeeper found out about the poor living conditions Price endured in this rundown house, and gave it its name.

She may be a free woman, but that’s not to say she is out of the woods yet. Her appearance in court this week is the latest incident in what has been a slow but decidedly downward spiral in a once stellar — if somewhat downmarket — career.

So where did it all go wrong for a woman who was once said to be worth £45 million?

For the past few years, much of Price’s life has been utterly shambolic. After a successful modeling career that was topless, Price became famous for her business acumen, which saw her create a variety of perfumes and lingerie as well as jewellery, memoirs and ghost-written novels.

A 2004 appearance on I’m A Celebrity heralded her transition from Page 3 girl persona Jordan to something closer to her real name, Katrina Price.

Romance with a fellow contestant, Nineties pop star Peter Andre, their subsequent glittering Cinderella-style wedding at Downton Abbey’s Highclere Castle and the birth of their two children, Junior, now 15, and 13-year-old Princess, saw them become one of the most bankable couples in the UK.

But while Price’s fame reached its zenith in her new semi-respectable guise as Mrs Andre, their highly acrimonious split in 2009 sparked the beginning of her fall from grace.

Almost exactly two years have passed since Price was declared bankrupt, having failed to stump up the £12,000 a month she owed her creditors.

HMRC, her mortgage company and Alex Reid (her first husband) are all believed to be involved. The latter was after Reid showed a clip with him that contained explicit sexual material to an audience on TV in 2018. 

Almost exactly two years have passed since Price was declared bankrupt, having failed to stump up the £12,000 a month she owed her creditors. They are believed to include her first husband Peter Andre (pictured together in 2006)

Almost exactly two years have passed since Price was declared bankrupt, having failed to stump up the £12,000 a month she owed her creditors. Her first husband Peter Andre is also believed to be included (pictured together in 2006).

Despite that rock-bottom moment, Price was as cocky as ever, proclaiming in a YouTube video that she would be bankrupt for a year ‘then start afresh again. It doesn’t stop me. I’m still working. I’m still earning. Just want it to be quick so I can see the finish of the twelve months. I’m a survivor’.

But despite her oft-repeated catchphrase — ‘Never underestimate the Pricey!!’ — her life since then appears to have lurched from one disaster to the next.

In August 2020, she broke both feet falling from a wall at a theme park while ‘mucking about’ on holiday in Turkey. She had an eight-hour operation to fuse the bones back together and still walks with a limp because of what she called ‘life-changing injuries’.

She posted photos of her cut lips and bruised skin online in August, alleging that she had been attacked at home. A man in his 30s was arrested by police and released on bail. 

Her fiance Carl Woods denied that he was the attacker, posting on social media that ‘I have never and never would do anything to hurt Katie and the truth will be told’.

As her solicitor Mr Harrington put it in court in September: ‘She has had a lot of personal difficulties recently, including a domestic incident that is subject to a police investigation and difficulties with her agent. The bankruptcy proceeding is underway and the house might be taken away.

‘So quite a lot going on in a really difficult period.’

He added that Price’s ‘ruinous’ finances were so disorganised that an unpaid £7.50 toll for using the Dartford Crossing had spiralled into a £1,400 debt.

Price, on the other hand, seems to have plenty of money to buy herself things.

She has never stopped obsessing about cosmetic surgery. In June this year she and Woods flew to Istanbul, where she had a Brazilian ‘bum’ lift, full body liposuction and eye and lip lifts.

This was all captured on film, just like much of her daily life.

Price's fiance Carl Woods (pictured together in Las Vegas) denied that he was the attacker, posting on social media that ‘I have never and never would do anything to hurt Katie and the truth will be told’

Price’s fiance Carl Woods (pictured together in Las Vegas) denied that he was the attacker, posting on social media that ‘I have never and never would do anything to hurt Katie and the truth will be told’

According to Professor Ellis Cashmore of Aston University who is a celebrity expert, going to prison may have been the best decision for her career.

‘In a perverse way, it would have added new interest to her career narrative,’ he says.

‘It could have generated a whole new line of work for her — books, diaries, TV work — as it did for Paris Hilton after she went to jail for traffic offences in 2006. It would also have enabled people to feel sorry for her, whereas now many are furious that she appears to have got off so lightly.’

According to Professor Cashmore, Price’s biggest mistake has been her failure to adapt.

‘I think she thought her fame would go on for ever,’ he says. ‘She thought she was invincible but she’s just done the same thing over and over again, like a one-trick pony. That kind of tactic can’t sustain you into middle age. You need to keep surprising people.’

Price returned to the sport earlier this year. There were some encouraging signs. Harvey And Me is a documentary on her family and life with her disabled son was nominated to a National Television Award.

She still holds many business interests, despite her poor financial situation. She also has her own line of skincare, make-up and fragrance products, in addition to her business selling equestrian clothes. And while she is banned from being a company director because of her bankruptcy, last year a new company called Priceywoods Ltd was registered in her fiance’s name.

However, her hopes that the bankruptcy process would end in 12 months proved to be a false hope. After she had failed to fulfill her promise to repay some of the million she owes creditors, the High Court extended her bankruptcy order in November 2013.

The court will hear her again in February 2022. It is one month since she was due to return at Crawley Magistrates regarding her unpaid motoring penalties.

The past days have been filled with adorable snaps on her social media of her children: Junior holding a pony and Bunny, seven year old daughter with slow worms; Princess wearing a Father Christmas hat. Harvey is her oldest child, a result of her marriage with Dwight Yorke. She poses next to the Christmas lights.

Price also posted an apology on her Instagram site, saying that she was ‘incredibly sorry for my actions’ and stating that she was now ‘spending time getting better — mental health is a hidden illness and can strike at any time’.

It will be only time that she shows seriousness about her recovery.

Her story is, first and foremost, a cautionary tale about what lies ahead for people who are looking to make a name for themselves at all costs.

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Price also posted an apology on her Instagram site, saying that she was ‘incredibly sorry for my actions’ and stating that she was now ‘spending time getting better — mental health is a hidden illness and can strike at any time’