Nazir Lababidi faces court for Facebook Marketplace car fraud

A man who was the public face of a syndicate that bought and resold cars with odometers wound back by up to 300,000km while he was on bail for similar offences has been sentenced.

Nazir Lababidi pictured (Middle) leaving court after being sentenced on multiple fraud charges.

A dodgy car salesman has faced court for “duping innocent people” on Facebook Marketplace while acting as the “public face” of a syndicate which bought and re-sold cars after winding back their odometers up to 300,000 kilometres.

Nazir Lababidi, 40, was sentenced at Brisbane District Court on Tuesday for 10 counts of fraud, half of which the court heard he had committed on bail.

The court was told Lababidi acted as the “public face” of an organisation which bought Toyota HiLuxes on Facebook Marketplace and sold them for a profit after winding back their odometers.

Lababidi had bought and sold 10 cars over a combined period of just over eight months in 2022 and 2023, selling them at inflated prices ranging between $7500 to $29,000 more than what he had purchased them for.

The court heard Lababidi or other persons had then wound the odometers back, with amounts ranging from 130,000km to 300,000km, before Lababidi resold the cars.

He made a total $163,000 from the inflated sales, but the court it was unknown what the exact profit was as Lababidi had made improvements to the cars before selling them.

Nazir Lababidi leaving Brisbane District Court on October 15, 2024.

Lababidi had been charged and granted bail for the first five frauds in November 2022, but he breached the conditions of his bail by continuing to buy and sell a further five cars in April 2023.

He had then spent 85 days in custody before being granted Supreme Court bail.

Defence barrister Saul Holt said that the nearly three-month period in custody had been the “the best thing that could have happened to Mr Lababidi”.

Mr Holt described it as a “true wake-up call” which had motivated Lababidi to direct his “absolute focus” to his children and family.

He submitted that Lababidi’s time in presentence custody was “enough”, and that he should receive a suspended sentence.

Judge Michael Byrne indicated that he would “feel a lot more comfortable” with that option if Lababidi had spent more time in presentence custody.

But Mr Holt argued that Lababidi’s time in custody had already served its purpose in terms of specific deterrence, as Lababidi had found employment and not reoffended in his 16 months on bail.

“I think you can safely assume that had your client not spent any time in custody, he would be going into jail today,” Judge Byrne told Mr Holt.

“The issue is whether he goes back.”

He noted Lababidi had a previous dishonesty offence on his criminal history in 2011, which he said showed a pattern of Lababidi reverting to dishonesty when under financial duress.

But he also accepted submissions that there had been “some pressure” on Lababidi to offend, and reoffend while on bail.

Judge Byrne said the matter was “very finely balanced”, but he ultimately decided not to send Lababidi back into custody.

Lababidi pleaded guilty on October 15 to 10 counts of fraud, eight breaches of bail, three counts of calling an approved phone number and requesting access to someone else, three counts of driving an uninsured vehicle, three counts of vehicles on roads must be registered, one of driving without a number plate, and two counts of contravening an order about information accessed electronically.

He was sentenced to two years jail, wholly suspended for an operational period of three years.