Luke Nesbit: Bondi Junction’s Flamingo Club brothel owner caught supplying cocaine, meth
A Bondi Junction brothel owner foreshadowed his own fate for drug supply in a desperate phone call where he “expressed fear of being arrested and charged”.
Wentworth Courier
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An eastern suburbs brothel owner foreshadowed his own fate for drug supply in a desperate phone call which have been revealed in court documents.
Bondi Junction’s Flamingo Club owner Luke Nesbit appeared via video link at Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday when he was sentenced to an aggregate sentence of three years and two months in jail after previously pleading guilty to drug supply on an ongoing basis and commercial drug supply.
Agreed facts reveal the 38-year-old was the “proprietor” of ‘The Flamingo Club’ brothel on Elbey St, Bondi Junction between April 14 and May 5 last year.
In March 2022, police established Strikeforce Maneela to investigate Nesbit’s drug supply and were granted a telephone interception warrant.
The agreed facts indicated the intercepted communications contained “substantial references to drug supply and use” and in a tapped phone call the following month, Nesbit “expressed fear of being arrested and charged”.
“Hey I need you to listen to me clearly. Don’t message me, please use WhatsApp or Signal, please … no, listen. Listen to me. Please use WhatsApp or Signal or something else, Wikr, because it’s me that goes to [jail], not you. And when I’m in [jail], they pull up all my messages, and they read them out to the court. Please, please, I’m begging you,” agreed facts reveal.
On eight separate occasions between April 14 and 27 last year, Nesbit supplied a combined 33.75g of cocaine and 13.11g of methylamphetamine.
Between April 4 and May 5 the same year, tapped phone calls and text messages between Nesbit and a co-offender demonstrated “a relationship concerned with the purchase and supply of prohibited drugs”.
It was agreed the co-offender would supply Nesbit with 500g of methylamphetamine in exchange for $50,000 and after meeting in Canley Vale, police eventually stopped and arrested the 38-year-old in an Uber back to the city.
A plastic heat-sealed bag was located, containing what was later found to be 496g of methylamphetamine with 78 per cent purity.
In sentencing Nesbit, and referencing the drug supply on an ongoing basis charge, Judge Mark Buscombe said “given [there was] limited number of supplies] involved, he found it to be at the lower range for offences of this nature.
He told the court the 38-year-old’s offending was “not particularly sophisticated or planned”, however, he found the commercial drug supply charge was a “serious example [for] this type of offending”, given the “quality and purity”.
Judge Buscombe found it to be below the mid-range of objective seriousness and highlighted the two offences were committed while he was on “conditional liberty”, having received a conditional release order without conviction.
The judge noted Nesbit’s difficult upbringing, including trauma, abandonment and substance use while also acknowledging his various mental health issues.
The court heard Nesbit had good prospects of rehabilitation and had shown remorse before he was sentenced to three years and two months behind bars and is eligible for parole on February 24 next year.
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