David Stakic and Apostolos Lapatis jail sentences appealed

Two con artists who tricked the owners of a motel into giving them nearly $3m should spend longer in jail, the DPP has argued.

Fawkner Airport Motor Inn, now under new management and trading under a different name, where fraudsters David Stakic and Apostolos Lapatis befriended the business owners and fleeced them of nearly $3m.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has appealed prison terms dished out to two con artists who swindled owners of a motel into giving them nearly $3m, arguing their sentences were manifestly inadequate.

David Stakic and his friend Apostolos Lapatis fleeced the then-owners of Fawkner Airport Motor Inn, Robin and Roslyn Nagorcka, of $2.9m between December 2013 and January 2018 while staying at the motel.

They claimed the money was to fund an ongoing court case, the details of which they said were suppressed.

Stakic, 72, was sentenced in County Court in September 2024 to a minimum of 20 months’ imprisonment and a maximum of two-and-a-half years on a charge of obtaining property by deception.

Con artists David Stakic and his friend Apostolos Lapatis conned owners of a motel into handing them nearly $3m to fund an ongoing court case.

Lapatis, 54, copped a minimum of three years and two months while the maximum sentence was four years and nine months.

The appeal was heard in the Court of Appeal on Monday and judgment was reserved.

Stakic argued the sentence he received was adequate, given his age, early guilty plea, lack of prior convictions, delays in finalising his case and that he was not the “prime mover”.

Lapatis said the DPP’s ground of appeal would be hard to make out.

He said the sentencing judge had taken into account factors such as the significant delay in finalising the case, his admissions to police and his positive prospects for rehabilitation.

Both men said the court should dismiss the appeal.