Peru Two coke mule Melissa Reid praised as she puts criminal past behind her by landing advice job at busy charity
COKE mule Melissa Reid has been praised for putting her criminal past firmly behind her - less than a year after her Peruvian prison hell ended.
The ex-con returned to her home near Glasgow 12 months ago amid a blaze of publicity over her drug-smuggling shame.
But while her brazen accomplice Michaella McCollum has tried to cash in on their notoriety, humbled Melissa appears to have knuckled down after being given a role at a busy charity.
The 23-year-old catches a bus to a worthy job with the Citizens Advice.
Demurely dressed and looking confident, she strode into work last week clutching a packed lunch bag - barely drawing a glance from colleagues or passersby.
A source said: “Melissa has been keeping her head down. She’s landed a role with a charity and is living a normal life.
“She’d much rather be doing that than posing in a bikini or appearing on telly like Michaella seems intent on doing.
“She seems to have taken the opposite path to her co-accused and is trying to quietly rebuild her life.
“It looks as if she has left her old ways behind and is trying to give something back to the community.
“She just seems polite and completely down to earth.”
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Party girls Melissa and Michaella, 24, from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, met in Ibiza in 2013, where they claimed they were recruited by a drugs gang.
They were eventually banged up for six years and eight months.
Melissa was freed last June after serving less than half her sentence.
When she returned to Scotland, she admitted being on a deadly “downward spiral” of ecstasy, cocaine and ketamine in Spain.
She told how she agreed to be part of the smuggling plot for a £4,000 payment - and so she could boast about it.
But she added: “I did an awful thing and I’ve paid the price.”
Melissa stayed with parents Billy and Debbie, both 57, in their luxury detached home in Lenzie following her release.
She embarked on a fitness regime and was pictured running a 5k and visiting her local swimming pool.
But she has since moved into a semi-detached house in Ayrshire - which she leaves early in the morning to travel to Glasgow by bus.
Citizens Advice Direct bureaux help more than 300,000 people each year, tackling everything from benefits issues to money-making scams.
Last night, umbrella body Citizens Advice Scotland revealed their independent member organisations have control over who they take on.
A spokesperson said: “The national charity does not recruit on behalf of it’s members but does provide guidance on the recruitment, screening and management of volunteers and employees.
“ This approach is designed to encourage responsible recruitment: balancing the benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce, with the need to ensure clients, volunteers and staff are not put at risk.”
When approached by The Sun on Sunday, Melissa refused to discuss her charity role.