Bondi cocaine dealer Lyon Nakad avoids conviction

A police prosecutor said allowing a tradie who pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine to escape conviction was “sending the wrong message”.

A young tradie who was caught dealing nine bags of cocaine in Bondi got away without a conviction despite police saying it was “sending the wrong message to the community”.

Lyon Nakad, 20, was spotted parked on Sir Thomas Mitchell Drive in the weeks before last Christmas when a man got into his blue Kia Cerato - and then got back out just 30 seconds later.

The young plumber was unaware police patrolling Bondi for drug deals were keenly watching his car.

Lyon Nakad, who was caught dealing nine bags of cocaine in Bondi, was not convicted.

When officers stopped the male and found a bag of cocaine in his wallet - which, according to court papers, he admitted to buying for $300 - more police further down the road pulled over and arrested Nakad.

But despite finding a further eight bags of cocaine and $300 cash in his car, Nakad walked out of Waverley Local Court with a non-conviction after last month pleading guilty to supplying a prohibited drug and also dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The decision by Magistrate Ross Hudson left the police prosecutor in disbelief, who had earlier told the court there was a significant cocaine problem in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

“Effectively a non-conviction is sending the wrong message to the community,” he said.

“He is at the bottom end of the chain but he has made a decision for financial gain to be part of … organised criminal activity.”

Nakad was supported in court by his mother, while his solicitor Mohamad Sakr told the court his client was a fourth-year plumbing apprentice who wanted to make good if given a second chance.

In his initial comments on sentencing, Magistrate Hudson appeared tough.

“What you are a part of is a scar on the community,” he told Nakad.

But with the young tradie having already completed a drug rehabilitation program, he was given a “second chance”.

Watch Australia’s Cocaine Crisis on Sunday at 7.30pm on Sky News.

Magistrate Hudson said “the legal and social consequences” of recording a conviction would ”far outway” the work he had done to rehabilitate.

“The message (of general deterrence) is not lost because if there is one step out of line in the next two years he will come back before the courts and be resentenced,” Magistrate Hudson said.

Nakad was placed on a two-year conditional release order and was ordered to abstain from drug taking until at least May 11, 2022.

* Watch Australia’s Cocaine Crisis Sunday 7.30pm on Sky News.