Revealed: Sydney Sport stars caught on the wrong side of the law
They’ve reached the top of their respective professions and have been adored by fans. But Sydney’s sports stars aren’t always squeaky clean. From a former Wallaby who choked his wife to a drink driving former Test cricketer, these are our sporting heroes who have made headlines for all the wrong reasons.
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The have made headlines for their sporting feats in the past. But in recent months their headlines have been for all the wrong reasons.
From UFC and soccer to rugby league and tennis, these current and former athletes have found themselves in strife in recent times for being on the wrong side of the law.
TENNIS ACE IN DRUG DRIVE SHAME
She once made news for partying with tennis player Nick Kyrgios as a teenager in Europe.
But in Sydney this year Monique Belovukovic was convicted for driving with drugs in her system.
The former junior tennis player pleaded guilty in March to driving with an illicit drug present in her bloodstream/oral fluids – which court documents revealed to be cocaine.
She was convicted and suspended from driving for three months.
Belovukovic was a talented young tennis player. But she captured the media’s eye when she was photographed partying with Kyrgios and British youngster Chelsea Samways during the 2017 Wimbledon tournament.
EX UFC STAR TURNS TO DEALING COKE
Former UFC star Ashkan Mokhtarian, known as The Assasin, confessed to supplying drugs to a woman in Surry Hills.
Police found seven resealable bags containing cocaine, and 13 smaller bags of granule MDMA following his arrest in June 15, 2019.
The founder of Australian Top Team gym pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying an indictable amount of drugs – 4.57g of cocaine and 11.5g of MDMA - and one of supplying a small quantity of illicit drugs.
MAY IN SEX TAPE SCANDAL
Penrith Panthers player Tyrone May in January received a three-year good behaviour bond and 300 hours of community service work for his part in a sex tape scandal.
“It’s reprehensible,” Magistrate Robyn Denes said.
“Not the conduct but Mr May’s conduct in filming it without consent.”
The NRL gun was spared jail time but was lectured about consent in the age of the “Me Too” era after he filmed four sex tapes without the consent of the women involved.
NRL MATES IN STRIFE
These two athletes are more used to being in the sport sections of papers than in the news.
But it was a boys weekend on the Mid North Coast that made headlines earlier this year.
It was a group trip on Latrell Mitchell’s NSW property during the coronavirus pandemic with the Storm’s Josh Addo-Carr among the attendees.
In court NRL star Mitchell pleaded guilty to giving NRL speedster Josh Addo-Carr a single-barrel shotgun on his property.
Storms Addo-Carr pleaded guilty to using an unauthorised firearm at the NSW property of Mitchell.
SUPER RUGBY PLAYER IN LICENCE DRAMA
Waratahs hooker Robbie Abel, who has been playing Super Rugby this season, faced a Sydney court this month charged with driving without holding a NSW licence - after his ACT licence was suspended for unpaid fines.
He pleaded guilty and Magistrate Holly Kemp found the offence proven but dismissed it without conviction.
“This is a firm and friendly reminder that at all times you must be aware of your licence status,” Ms Kemp told Abel.
CRICKET LEGEND’S DRINK DRIVE SHAME
Former Australian Test cricketer Stuart MacGill was convicted of a serious drink-driving charge at Manly court this year
The leg spinner, who played 44 Test matches for Australia between 1998 and 2008, blew close to three times the limit when he was pulled over while picking up a takeaway meal for his children.
MacGill, who represented himself in court, told Magistrate Mark Richardson that he was “very embarrassed” to be charged with a drink-driving offence.
“I work in a restaurant and I have never, ever considered driving after consuming alcohol,” he said.
Mr Richardson told MacGill: “It’s a pretty high reading I’ve got to say” before disqualifying his from driving for four months and fining him $950.
RUGBY STAR IN NIGHTCLUB FIGHT
Former Super Rugby hopeful Elimi Uluikadavu faced the ACT Supreme Court in September after earlier pleading guilty to unlawfully causing grievous bodily harm in an incident outside a nightclub.
He was sentenced to a 13 month intensive corrections order, with 100 hours of community service.
Uluikadavu was booted from Canberra’s Shorty’s nightclub in February 2019 following a dispute about a woman.
Security guards split the men up, and sent them out separate entrances in the hope each would head off in different directions.
But outside, Uluikadavu sought the man out, cornered him and belted him around the head, breaking his jaw and collarbone.
KICKBOXER JAILED FOR DEALING DRUGS
Gym owner Stuart McKinnon was jailed after he used his encrypted BlackBerry phone and a codename, “Gohard101”, to sell thousands of MDMA pills to an undercover cop he knew as ‘Crystal’.
The 46-year-old recovering cocaine addict recently had his 11-year sentence shortened to eight years in the Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal.
In 2018 McKinnon was arrested with police raiding his car and home, where they seized $237,000 in cash and 0.016 grams of ‘Sparta’ brand testosterone.
A court heard the father-of-two has become an “asset” to Long Bay prison, de-escalating arguments in the yard and “stopping anything from getting physical.”
The “well-mannered” reception sweeper also serves breakfast to his fellow inmates and gives them mental health support - a far cry from the junkie who had run up an $80,000 cocaine debt three years ago.
RETIRED FIGHTER TURNS TO DEALING DRUGS
Former MMA welterweight fighter Junior Moe was caught dial-a-dealing in Bondi while on his L plates.
The 29-year-old, who is now retired from his sport, pleaded guilty to charges of drug supply, dealing with the proceeds of crime and driving as an unaccompanied learner on a suspended licence.
Police were patrolling a notorious Bondi Beach dial-a-dealer hot spot when they watched a woman attempt to clamber aboard an innocent Uber driver’s car near the Beach Road Hotel just prior to midnight on December 28.
Minutes later, Moe, who fought under the alias Junior Topa, turned up in his black Volkswagen Polo.
After picking his customer up on the corner of Blair St and Glenayr Ave, Moe did a U-turn, dropped the woman off and officers watched her walk “briskly” away.
Officers stopped the woman who handed them the bag of coke and caught up with Moe on nearby Wellington St.
A search of the car located three further bags of cocaine in the glove box, just under $6000 in cash and a phone with the Wickr app which is commonly used by drug dealers due to its encryption and message deletion functions.
WALLABY CHOKES WIFE IN TERRIFYING ATTACK
Former Wallaby Brett Sheehan blamed a dosage increase in mental health medication for the domestic violence incident in which he choked his wife.
The 40-year-old former NSW Waratahs halfback was in April convicted of putting his hands around his wife’s neck and squeezing to the point she had trouble breathing in their Sydney northern beaches home in October last year.
He was sentenced to a 12-month community corrections order and ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.
The incident occurred when he confronted her about a conversation with her sister, and he straddled her on the bed, strangling her for around 30 seconds while he yelled “I hate you”.