Dimitri Kentrotis: Ex Reserve Hotels director guilty of dangerous driving

A pub empire crumbling under the COVID-19 pandemic. A bitter family feud. When police told Dimitri Kentrotis he was under arrest, it all became too much.

As a multimillion-dollar pub empire threatened to crumble under the weight of the crippling COVID-pandemic and an explosive family divide, Dimitri Kentrotis sheepishly failed a roadside drug test and wildly fled from police in his BMW. 

About the same time the frightening run-in with police occurred last year, the court was told 42-year-old businessman was locked in a bitter boardroom battle with his father-in-law and hotel baron Nick Balagiannis.

Dimitri Kentrotis outside Downing Centre Court last year. Picture: Daniel McGookin

Kentrotis was stopped by police on Oxford St in Darlinghurst on the night of June 8 last year for driving a BMW X5 with an expired registration.

The agreed facts stated he appeared highly nervous and subsequently failed a random drug test, with an oral test returning a positive reading for cocaine.

Having produced the positive result, the stressed-out man from Bondi Junction went rogue.

Kentrotis locked his car doors and started to tell police, through a small gap in the window, that he will call his lawyer. When told that wouldn’t help his cause, he put the pedal to metal and accelerated away.

The arresting police officer who had hold of the car door handle was literally spun around as Kentrotis sped through a red light and into the darkness.

Dimitri Kentrotis and wife Mary Balagiannis last July. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Barrister Phillip Boulten SC told the court the bizarre response was linked to his mental health conditions, which include PTSD, ADHD and depression, and the stresses surrounding the great family divide.

“A very deep schism between his (Kentrotis’) father-in-law on the one hand, and all the other members of the family about the control of the business,” he told the court.

Mr Boulten said there had been deep family divisions about how to solve the empire’s woes during the COVID-19 pandemic with the key source of the dispute being whether to sell up.

Before the infighting, Kentrotis had a “very hands-on” role in the Reserve Hotels empire, the court heard.

Reserve Hotels owns a number of pubs in the Sydney CBD including the Albion Place Hotel, Mr B’s and Chamberlain Hotel.

Mr Boulten said these internal disputes led to “significant turmoil about the management of the company”, which peaked about the time Kentrotis escaped arrest by fleeing the scene in his BMW X5.

The businessman also carried mental scars after he narrowly survived a tsunami in 2004 and suffered police brutality as a young man, the court heard.

Magistrate Michael Barko dismissed two of the charges, being resist arrest and escape lawful custody, under the Mental Health Act.

Kentrotis pleaded guilty to the remaining five charges, which included dangerous driving, running a red light and speeding, with his barrister telling the court the crimes were “much less serious” due to the mental health issues.

The 42-year-old was sentenced to a conditional release order without conviction for refusing a drug test and drive recklessly/manner dangerous. He was convicted of the remaining offences and fined a total of $550.