Court’s conviction call on Akuila Cava’s $240k in illegal money

Akuila Cava was caught with nearly a quarter-of-a-million dollars in proceeds of crime but received no further penalty in addition to a conviction.

A criminal caught with nearly a quarter-of-a-million dollars in cash received a conviction but no further penalty despite admitting the money was the proceeds of crime.

Akulia Cava, 23, was granted a section 10A conviction by Magistrate Kate Thompson in Parramatta Local Court last Tuesday after pleading guilty to dealing with $240,600 in property being proceeds of crime.

But despite possessing the enormous sum of illegal money and being on a Conditional Release Order for an unrelated robbery offence, Magistrate Thompson used Section 10A which allows a conviction to be recorded but “No further penalty imposed”.

When police raided his Mays Hill home last December, Cava claimed he didn’t know how much money was in his bedroom.

Akulia Cava, 23, was convicted but received no further penalty despite pleading guilty to possessing $240,000 in proceeds of crime. Picture: Facebook

Court documents state that just three days out from Christmas last year police raided the home where Cava lives with his parents and sister.

“On Monday, December 21, 2020 a search warrant was granted by the eligible issuing officer at Parramatta Local Court to search the accused’s home at Mays Hill.

At 6.01am on Tuesday, December 22 2020 police executed the search warrant,’’ the amended statement of facts said.

“The accused was in his bedroom when police entered the house, the door was locked from the inside. The accused is the only occupant of that bedroom … While searching the accused’s bedroom an amount of cash was located throughout the room,” the document said.

Police eventually seized $240,600 found in various parts of his room.

He was also initially charged with an additional proceeds of crime offence but it was later dropped. Details of his arrest were tendered to the court but largely redacted after Cava’s lawyers agreed to a plea deal.

Cava, who is unemployed, refused to say where he got the money from and was arrested, taken to Granville Police station where he then contacted his lawyer.

“The accused spoke to his legal representative … and declined to participate in an electronically recorded interview,’’ the court was further told.

He spent three-and-a-half-months on remand before being released on bail.

Cava eventually agreed to plead guilty and forfeit the money he had illegally obtained by criminal activity.

“The prosecution accepts that the accused did not have knowledge of the amount of money that he possessed,” court documents state.

The case was initially set to be prosecuted by the Department of Public Prosecutions before they handed it down to NSW Police prosecutors.

The DPP did not respond when questioned on their role in the matter by The Daily Telegraph.

Senior police said they were infuriated by no further penalty being recorded, especially since Cava did not make any statement to police or co-operate in any way prior to his guilty plea.

A NSW Police spokesman said the prosecution of Cava had now been finalised.