Tyrone Bakpopanos sentenced for selling drugs he hid in his car and mother’s garage

A man has been sentenced after being caught with drugs three times in seven months – each time busted because of his bad driving.

A man living in his mother’s garage turned to drug dealing to stay afloat and was arrested three times in seven months for the same offending, a court has heard.

Tyrone Bakpopanos, 29, appeared in the District Court last week where he was sentenced after pleading guilty to various charges – spanning three separate occasions – including trafficking a controlled drug, carrying an offensive weapon and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Judge Emily Telfer said Bakpopanos was first arrested in December 2022 after police pulled him over for a broken tail light in Norwood.

A search of his car and his mother’s garage, where he was living, was the beginning of a seven-month spate of crimes in which he was arrested three times.

“On December 8, 2022, police stopped the vehicle that you were driving on Queen St … during a subsequent examination of the vehicle police observed green vegetable matter inside the vehicle,” she said.

“A total of 604.9g of pure cannabis and 3.4g of mixed cannabis were located during the search … digital scales, tick lists and a homemade bong were also located.

“At the same time, police located two gold switch knives and two extendible metal batons, one of which had a spike attachment.”

Judge Telfer said prescription drugs, not prescribed to Bakpopanos, were also found with a later search of his mother’s garage uncovering cannabis in a filing cabinet worth between $16,000 and $24,000.

Over three months later Bakpopanos came to the attention of police a second time when he was pulled over for failing to indicate and found to be driving while disqualified and under the influence of meth and cannabis.

Another five months later, Bakpopanos was arrested for a third time after being detected by police driving a blue Mercedes.

“You handed police a heavy-vehicle driver’s licence but checks revealed you were suspended from driving,” Judge Telfer said.

“During these checks police smelled cannabis and they conducted a search of the vehicle … they located 753g of pure cannabis, scaled, used and unused resealable bags, tick lists and three mobile telephones.

“The cannabis in your possession was worth between $5800 and $9400 if sold in two to three gram lots.

“During the same search police located a small bottle containing the drug known as fantasy and a small bottle which contained Psilocybin.”

Judge Telfer said Bakpopanos had a challenging childhood and started selling drugs when his addiction deemed him unfit to work.

“You reached a stage that you were living in your car and selling drugs to survive,” she said.

“Your arrest in December 2022 did not break that cycle and you continued to offend, stopping only after you were remanded in custody in August 2023.

“You spend two months in custody including time at the Remand Centre, Yatala Labour Prison in Port Augusta.”

Bakpopanos was sentenced to three years, one month and 30 days with a non-parole period of 18 months.

Due to his strong prospects of rehabilitation, Judge Telfer ordered the sentence be served on home detention.