Rushcutters Bay Mercedes salesman Hakan Yildiz out of jail after dealing cocaine

An eastern suburbs Mercedes salesman who sold cocaine on the side has been released from jail after just two months, following an appeal to reduce his sentence.

A Mercedes salesman who sold cocaine on the side has had his sentence slashed because a District Court judge decided it was an “unsophisticated” plot — and it had been 10 years since his last jail term for drugs.

Hakan Yildiz had been handed a 30-month jail term after he was caught with more than 130 grams of cocaine in a dramatic arrest outside the eastern suburbs luxury car dealership where he worked.

Yildiz had served only two months in Parklea Correctional Centre before Judge Dina Yehia upheld his appeal this week, allowing him to walk from jail on an 18-month intensive corrections order with 75 hours community service.

Hakan Yildiz was a successful Mercedes salesman before his drug arrest.

Police pounced on the 49-year-old at a Mercedes dealership in Rushcutters Bay last June, after raiding his Luddenham home.

Police briefly spoke to him, before he slapped an officer’s hand away and sprinted away with a satchel bag. Yildiz ran down a laneway, before chucking several items under a car.

Police caught up to the car salesman, where they found three identical packages wrapped in newspaper. Those packages turned out to be 112 grams of cocaine.

Inside his home, police also seized a quantity of MDMA and alprazolam – which the court heard were for personal use – 33.9 grams of cocaine and $12,000 cash.

His barrister Phillip Boulten SC told the court that Yildiz had spent 23 days of his two-month jail stint in solitary confinement and that he was “on the straight and narrow at the moment” having consistently returned negative drug urine tests in jail.

Hakan Yildiz’s lawyer told the court his client’s career with Mercedes had been ruined by his offending.

He told the court the 49-year-old’s drug dealing was “unsophisticated” and that he was a user-dealer who developed a coke habit in his 20s and mainly sold the drugs to family and friends.

“He was a successful car salesman and since his arrest that’s out the window,” Mr Boulten said.

“He can’t sell cars and certainly not where he was working (at the Mercedes dealership).”

Crown prosecutor Kim Gourlie disagreed, saying it appeared the motivation for the dealing was financial, given he had access to a “large quantity of cash”.

He also made clear that Yildiz had been convicted of serious drug charges in 2004 and served a seven year non-parole period.

Judge Yehia said while Yildiz was jailed for a drug conviction “of some significance” he had not offended in the 10 years since his release.

“He obtained employment and was considered to be a hard worker,” she said.

“Given the gap in offending and the fact no other matters on his record, I’m not persuaded the prior conviction completely disentitles him to leniency.”

In reducing his jail sentence to an ICO, she described Yildiz’s offending as “unsophisticated in nature” with “little planning involved”.

“The supply of prohibited drugs into the community is a serious matter, such conduct must be punished, denounced and deterred,” she said.

“I cannot find that he stood to gain an accepted amount of reward financially to the extent that it would be an aggravating factor.”

Yildiz must complete 75 hours community service and must complete a drug and alcohol recovery program.

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