Vic Cuoco: Wollongong lawyer sentenced for drug supply, weapons charges

The career of a prominent lawyer is hanging in the balance after being sentenced for supplying cocaine across a drug-fuelled party weekend.

Cuoco arriving at Downing Centre for his sentence on drug supply charges. Picture: Joel Carrett

The career of a prominent lawyer is hanging in the balance after he was convicted for supplying cocaine to his pals and strangers across a drug-fuelled party weekend in Sydney.

Vittorio ‘Vic’ Cuoco, the founder and director of Wollongong-based CVC Law and Conveyancing, had his Balgownie mansion and workplace later raided by police in the weeks after the bender in March, which netted an unlicensed poker machine, bag of cocaine hidden inside a sports memorabilia football boot and an unregistered air rifle with ammo.

Cuoco.

The high-flying legal eagle was unaware police had bugged his Pitt St hotel room where he supplied the cocaine to his pals and women he met across the night.

The man, aged in his early 50s, recently pleaded guilty to the drug supply and weapons offences and, in sentencing before Magistrate Susan McIntyre at Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, asked to be spared any criminal conviction.

Cuoco’s barrister, who said the lawyer’s clients thought he was “the ants pants”, revealed The Law Society of NSW had issued a show-cause notice as a result of the charges, telling the court his legal career possibly rests on the court’s ruling.

“Your Honour would glean from all of that it (a conviction) is not going to help him at all,” he said.

Vittorio Cuoco on his release on bail. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The court also heard Cuoco, whose charitable efforts were once recognised by former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, had “effectively lost his marriage” with former My Kitchen Rules contestant Cynthia Cuoco and had used cocaine across the last decade.

Cuoco’s barrister told the court the Balgownie man’s goodwill had played a role in his downfall.

“That’s what his generosity gets him,” he said. “They (the cocaine receivers) wanted it, they were quite happy to take the drug so these are like-minded, not vulnerable, people.”

The Wollongong-based lawyer. Picture: Joel Carrett

The police prosecutor said Cuoco should face the full force of the law.

“Society would expect, and expect the courts, to hold a person who is in a professional occupation to a higher standard than a normal person,” he said.

“(Cuoco) isn’t a person who has no knowledge of the law. He is a man who has built a reputable business and is a pillar of the community of where he comes from.”

Magistrate McIntyre told Cuoco the community does not expect lawyers to receive special treatment before the courts.

“While you have what some people may see as a high-flying lifestyle as a single man, it is also one that has meant you have engaged in criminal behaviour,” she said

Cuoco was convicted and placed on a 12-month community corrections order with the condition he abstain from drugs and alcohol, participate in rehabilitation program and continue with his counselling.

He was also fined a total of $3250 for cocaine possession, the unlicensed poker machine and firearm offences.