Melbourne professionals gone bad: Eileen Cassidy, James Mavrokokki and Kiara Mack fronted court
Melbourne professionals? More like unprofessionals if their dismal court appearances in 2021 were anything to go by. See the list.
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These Melbourne professionals gone bad were ousted for behaviour which could only be regarded as unprofessional.
A glamour model road pest, a twisted Auslan teacher, a crooked comedian, a real estate rip-off merchant and a law firm thug were among the professionals who had their card marked at court in 2021.
AUSLAN FIEND TEACHER
A hearing-impaired teacher who founded a southeast Auslan teaching service used by multiple schools has been exposed as a child sex fiend.
Darren Roberts was sentenced in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last October to a two-year community correction order after pleading guilty to a rolled-up charge of sexually assaulting a child under 16.
Roberts, of Pakenham, offended against his 12-year-old victim in 2019.
The fiend sexually assaulted the young girl after offering to give her a massage.
Roberts asked his victim if she wanted him to “stop or keep going”.
The victim told Roberts to stop but his lewd offending continued.
Roberts, who also required the services of an interpreter in court, is the founder and chief executive of southeast teaching service The Auslan Company.
Magistrate Hayley Bate said the offending was “inherently serious”.
“That day (the victim) was terrified and confused,” Magistrate Bate said.
“She should be commended in the bravery she showed by reporting your offending to her mother …
“Your actions have interfered with this little’s girl’s ability to live her life carefree now as a young teenager as she is entitled … (the victim) continues to feel the impact of your offending.”
Roberts, who was assessed as being a “low risk” of reoffending, was convicted and made a registered sex offender for eight years.
LAW FIRM DIDI DRIVER BASHER
A law firm admin staffer has admitted assaulting a DiDi driver and stealing his car following a $200 fare from Moorabbin to McCrae.
Eleisha Antunovic was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in December to a 12-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to car theft and assault.
Antunovic ordered a $200.25 DiDi rideshare trip which was accepted by her 23-year-old victim just after midnight on March 22 this year.
The victim collected Antunovic from her Moorabbin location before arriving at a McCrae address about 1am, the court heard.
Antunovic, who asked the driver to pull over and let her out before the fare payment was processed, then clobbered her victim in the back of the head.
The driver, who suffered “intense and immediate” pain, tussled with Antunovic who was in possession of a yellow titanium gas cylinder.
The victim wrangled the canister from Antunovic and hopped out of his Toyota Camry.
Antunovic hopped into the driver’s seat and drove off but the victim had placed his hand on the driver’s door to thwart her getaway.
Antunovic slammed the door shut, which “briefly” trapped her victim’s hand in the door, and sped off.
Police arrested Antunovic and hauled her to Rosebud police station but she was deemed “unfit” to be interviewed.
Antunovic, who made “no comment” regarding the offending during an interview held later that morning, told police she had recently taken herself off prescription drugs.
Jessie Knights, for Antunovic, told the court her client worked casually doing admin for a law firm.
Magistrate Donna Bakos said the victim was too scared to drive and quit his job after the incident.
“The impact upon the victim was likely serious,” Magistrate Bakos said.
Antunovic, who had spent 59 days on remand, was convicted and ordered to recommence a community correction order.
REAL ESTATE RIP-OFF MERCHANT
A former Jellis Craig lease consultant accessed and illegally supplied clients’ personal information, which was later used in various frauds.
Stephanie Reed pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last September to supply identification with intent to commit obtain financial advantage by deception.
Reed accessed the Form 1 rental applications of multiple clients while she worked at Jellis Craig Hawthorn between September 13 and November 13, 2019.
The court heard Reed passed on the confidential information to an accomplice who used the victims’ identities to obtain various bogus email, phone and credit accounts.
Reed’s accomplice purchased goods including a JVC receiver and vintage leather bar stools via various online transactions.
The accomplice also purchased a $2236 Collarium Classic tanning canopy, the court was told.
Reed later sold the receiver and the tanning canopy via a Facebook Marketplace account.
Police seized evidence including a laptop, receipt for the tanning canopy, the Jellis Craig rental applications and other bogus pay slips and credit card applications after raiding the accomplice’s Sandringham apartment in early-2020.
The jig was up for Reed, who also pleaded guilty to dealing with the proceeds of crime, after she was arrested at her Langwarrin home on August 24 last year.
Investigators made inquiries with Jellis Craig Hawthorn director Sophie Lyons before tracing the rental application racket back to Reed via email, the court was told.
The court heard Reed graduated from elite Bayside private school Haileybury College which she attended on a swimming scholarship.
Reed’s downfall was cemented after the former junior national swimming star turned to illicit party drugs including meth and GHB.
Reed hopes to work as a swimming teacher in the future but is now focused on being a mother for her child, the court was told.
Reed was convicted and fined $1500.
GRUB COMPANY BOSS
A grubby businessman who groomed a child for sex by offering to delay a business trip to Sydney to coincide with school holidays has avoided a jail term.
David Bodin was sentenced in the County Court last August to a three-year suspended jail term after pleading guilty to using a service to procure a child under 16 for a sexual act.
Bodin targeted his intended victim via Skype and Chat Avenue between October 28 and November 28, 2019.
The fiend messaged his target, an undercover cop posing as a 14-year-old girl, not long after she logged on to Chat Avenue.
Bodin told his target he was 64 and asked if she “didn’t mind the age difference”, the court was told.
He then asked if she had met anyone physically from the chat room and if she was a “still a virgin”.
Bodin then hit his target with vile sexualised messages, including asking if she had ever kissed a boy or had her “breasts stroked”.
Bodin then sent an image of his penis.
The pair switched to Skype where Bodin’s profile read: “Melbourne guy whos pretty happy. Like chatting to teens, not sure why … just feel younger”.
Bodin, who uploaded another image of his penis, attempted to have his target perform lewd acts while on Skype.
In a later Skype chat, Bodin attempted to arrange a meeting with the girl while he would be in Sydney for a business trip.
The undercover cop asked Bodin what they would do if they met up.
“Well that depends,” Bodin said.
“Maybe just chat and a milkshake … depending on what you wanted to explore … did you want to experience anything sexual … maybe do things you hadn’t done before,” Bodin said.
He later requested a photo of his target in a bikini after telling her she had “lovely eyes”.
Bodin asked his target if she had Skype on her phone but the undercover cop said no because she “didn’t want to get in trouble with her mum”.
“Well we’d better not meet then … cos she would be seriously angry more with me,” Bodin replied.
In a later conversation, Bodin asked his target if she “mucked around with boys”, requested a “topless” selfie and quizzed the girl on what her dress and bra size was.
Bodin then sent the target a link to a website which instructs how to masturbate, the court was told.
Bodin rose through the ranks of the Australian paper industry and managed the Australian operations for multinational Ekman Group while he offended.
Bodin, a father who still lives with his wife, was made a registered sex offender for eight years.
SCOUNDREL ACCOUNTANT
A scoundrel Frankston accountant who claimed he stole more than $400,000 from a deceased client because the beneficiaries didn’t need the cash has been jailed.
Michael Carley was sentenced in the County Court in November to a minimum two years’ and six months’ jail after pleading guilty to theft and false accounting charges.
Carley was made an executor and power of attorney for his former client Kenneth Butler who died in 2003.
The court heard Carley formed his own practice Carley Advisory then began draining Mr Butler’s estate in 2010.
Carley fleeced $403,685.89 via multiple bogus transactions between July 2010 and July 2018.
The fraudster falsified accounting records to mask his skulduggery.
Solicitors managing Mr Butler’s estate received an email tip-off in September 2018 that Carley had been “misappropriating funds” from his deceased client.
Carley, who was “initially evasive”, suggested to the solicitors the tip-off came from a “disgruntled employee” who was attempting to “cause him” problems.
Carley admitted using Mr Butler’s estate funds for his “own personal use” and he transferred dough to his personal account because he “needed funds in his business”.
Carley, who apologised for taking the money, claimed he had not done the “wrong thing” because he intended to repay the funds.
Carley told the solicitors he took the money because none of the estate’s beneficiaries “needed the money at present” and the money was “easily available to him”.
The court held Carley was previously a well-respected contributor to the community known in many circles, including local schools.
Judge Michael McInerney said the “very serious” offending was a “grave breach of trust”
Carley was jailed for a maximum three years and eight months.
SHYSTER CANNABIS ACCOUNTANT
A shyster accountant who ran a scam with a prolific cocaine trafficker was nabbed with drugs and steroids at his firm’s Prahran office.
James Mavrokokki was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in August to a 12-month good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to cultivating cannabis and obtain a financial advantage by deception.
Police raided Mavrokokki’s Prahran firm Accountancy Matters in front of stunned staff and clients in June 2020.
An employee told the court she was with a client when police stormed the Malvern Rd firm.
Police seized cannabis plants Mavrokokki had growing in a room and seven vials of human growth hormone steroids.
Investigators also seized a phone, a laptop, pay slips and fraudulent documentation linking Mavrokokki to prolific Melbourne coke dealer Bronson Interlandi.
Interlandi was jailed last year after he was exposed as the mastermind behind a Melbourne-wide dial-a-deal cocaine racket.
Interlandi paid Mavrokokki a monthly fee in return for a weekly wage for a bogus Accountancy Matters role as “business development manager”.
Interlandi, who had been a client of Mavrokokki since 2015, received $627 a week for a total of $7531 between March and June last year.
Mavrokokki, who also pleaded guilty to making a false document, lodged false pay slips with the tax office to mask the skulduggery.
The court heard Mavrokokki was a “hardworking” boss devoted to his clients and staff but many employees said they were “shocked” to learn of his criminal enterprise.
Magistrate Fiona Hayes asked why she shouldn’t see Mavrokokki’s fraud offending as “money laundering”.
“It’s not simply a tax dodge is it …,” Magistrate Hayes said.
“It seems like money laundering, I know he’s not charged as such …
“It’s hard to believe you would put your staff at risk by growing cannabis at your work premises.”
Mavrokokki, who also pleaded guilty to possessing steroids, was served the bond without conviction and fined $5000.
ROAD MENACE MODEL
A high-profile model has used her international jetsetting lifestyle and VicRoads’ mailing policy as excuses for her illegal driving escapade.
Eileen Cassidy pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last October to multiple charges including driving while suspended.
Police, who intercepted Cassidy at South Yarra in April 2019, informed the glamour model her licence had been suspended due to a demerit point demolition.
“Ah there was a bit of an issue between VicRoads and Victoria Police both I was like going back and forth for like long time but as far as I’m concerned I’ve got it (my licence),” Cassidy told police.
Police informed Cassidy again that their database was “telling them” her licence was suspended.
“What?” she said.
The Instagram influencer was charged and her car was impounded for 30 days at a cost of almost $900.
Cassidy was back in trouble after she was nabbed using her phone while driving through a St Kilda intersection on July 16 last year.
Police spotted Cassidy, who the court heard had multiple priors stretching back to 2010, with her phone at “steering wheel” level.
Cassidy had been looking at her phone just prior to driving through the Barkly and Grey streets intersection, the court was told.
Police, who intercepted Cassidy on Barkly St, told the serial road pest she was using her phone while driving.
“No, I was playing with my rings,” Cassidy told police.
“Before you got to the intersection you were looking down and then you looked up to go through the intersection, as you went through it, straight past us, you had your phone in your left hand, I saw it,” a police member told Cassidy.
Cassidy copped a hefty fine and another four demerit points went down the drain but she elected to have the matter heard at court.
Brett Tait, for Cassidy, told the court he had “formed the view” his client had an “honest belief” her licence was not suspended.
“My client served, in her mind, the balance of the suspension through to February … she sold her car, she reorganised her affairs …,” Mr Tait said.
“Miss Cassidy works as a model, as an influencer, she’s recently started her own clothing label and she does a lot of work and has done over the years in Bali, she relocated for much of that period to Bali …
“She was going backwards and forwards between Melbourne and Bali and the address her VicRoads licence advice was being sent to is a former flatmate, she wasn’t residing there, she wasn’t really residing anywhere permanently … and was receiving mail intermittently …
“I would ask the court to accept the belief was held honestly but arguably not reasonably …”
“While you say it’s onerous for drivers who use their cars for work to stay on top of demerit points is a responsibility that comes with … the privilege of driving,” Magistrate Hayley Bate said.
“Your client needs to make sure, especially when she is coming and going from different jurisdictions, that she is well aware of what the status of her licence is before she gets in a vehicle when she returns … as she did on this occasion … hopefully she’s learnt from this experience.”
Magistrate Bate spared Cassidy, formerly of St Kilda, further loss of licence but reimposed the $496 mobile phone fine, placed on a nine-month good behaviour bond and ordered to make a $100 donation to the road trauma support service.
THE CROOKED CLOWN
A Melbourne film producer and stand-up comedian received almost $400,000, which was the proceeds of a sophisticated email scam, a court has heard.
Jonathan Newton was sentenced in the County Court last May to a 12-month community correction order after he pleaded guilty to two charges of negligently dealing with the proceeds of crime.
Newton pocketed almost $400,000 courtesy of an elaborate online scam in November and December 2018.
The court heard an unknown person hacked into a business email account and sent a fake invoice to a NSW landscaping company in November 2018.
The landscaping business later paid the $141,361 bill to an ANZ bank account Newton had registered for his friend.
Newton told his friend her investment with Summit Oil Profits had been paid out, asking her to keep $2000 of the cash and transfer the rest to him.
She received a phone call from someone called Michael, who was purporting to be the chief executive of Summit Oil Profits three days later, and became suspicious about the investment scheme, telling Newton she didn’t want to receive anymore funds from it.
The landscaping business reported the fraud to NSW police and Bendigo Bank refunded their cash.
The court heard a second business was duped into coughing up $254,642 after receiving a fake invoice on December 5, 2018.
The money ended up in Newton’s account, and he farmed it out through multiple transactions over the following weeks, including to his company account Newtel Productions.
The comedian told investigators he wasn’t aware he had laundered money and he believed his investment had been paid out.
Judge Justin Hannebery said Newton’s version of facts appeared “to be highly unlikely” and showed “inexplicable gullibility”.
“It is almost inconceivable that anyone would believe the inherently improbable stories that you had been told,” Judge Hannebery said.
Judge Hannebery said “a reasonable person” would have at least asked about the legitimacy of the transactions or asked for more proof of their legitimacy.
The court heard, Newton, of Wantirna South, was self-employed in TV and film and stand up comedy after attending Emmaus College.
He also ran “iShoot images” a business which did work for real estate agents and restaurants.
Newton, who also copped 50 hours of unpaid community work, was sentenced without conviction.
ERNST & YOUNG SOBBING STALKER
A sobbing accountant who plotted a series of revenge attacks on her ex which included posting intimate photos of him on Instagram has avoided a conviction.
Kiara Mack was sentenced in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last June to a 15-month community correction order after pleading guilty to six charges including stalking.
Mack, an Ernst & Young accountant, stalked and menaced her ex-boyfriend after the pair broke up early-2020.
The scorned lover spray-painted “cheater” in pink across her victim’s black Volkswagen, the court was told.
Mack then barraged her victim with a series of menacing messages via Facebook.
“Stupid to leave your sister’s car out there to … initiating phase 2,” Mack said.
“I know where you live, I know where you work, I know your footy club, I know your favourite bars, I know the code to your house.”
Mack amped up her anger when the victim changed addresses but refused to tell her where he had moved to.
Mack posted intimate photos of her victim in his underwear on Instagram.
Mack then drove around Prahran looking for her victim’s new house and found her victim’s car.
She found his car on the street and spray-painted “cheater” with a love heart symbol on the vehicle.
Mack later sent the victim four texts.
“Checkmate … XXXX … I’m sorry you do the things you do … no need to chat tomorrow X,” Mack said via SMS.
Mack punched, scratched and struck her victim with her shoe outside his house on July 2.
She then followed up with another menacing text.
“Your life is over I have a book of plans to make sure of it,” Mack said.
Mack was arrested and her mobile phone was seized.
Investigators discovered internet search history on “how to find where people live” and real estate pages for properties on the victim’s street on Mack’s phone.
Mack, who also pleaded guilty to criminal damage and assault, also provided references work colleagues but told the court her employer was unaware of the charges.
Mack told the court she joined Ernst & Young in March last year after two years at KPMG and completing a bachelor of commerce at Deakin Uni.
Angeline Centrone, for Mack said widespread media coverage of Mack’s plea hearing amplified her client’s distress, depression and anxiety.
Magistrate Peter Reardon said Mack’s offending was “really obsessive behaviour”.
“It goes well beyond a person’s relationship being finalised,” Magistrate Reardon
“People have to understand that the other person in their life is not owned by them and they are entitled to move on … the contact was unwanted.”
Mack, who sobbed throughout sentencing, was served the order without conviction and fined $1000.
She retained her Ernst & Young position.
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