James Glewis avoids jail after drug raid on Italy on High pizzeria in Preston found cocaine, cash, guns

A co-owner of a Preston pizzeria had guns, drugs, and more than $65,000 cash when police kicked his door in.

The gun-toting, drug dealing owner of a Preston pizzeria would have gone to jail if his lawyers hadn’t managed to let his case drag through the courts more than three years, a magistrate has said.

Magistrate Jennifer Tregent on Thursday let Glewis off on an 18 month community corrections order, with 300 hours of unpaid work, after he earlier pleaded guilty to a string of drug, firearm and proceeds of crime charges.

Glewis’s lawyer, Younis Yehia, praised Ms Tregent for taking a “therapeutic approach” in the case.

Ms Tregent said: “These are very serious charges.”

“You have been fortunate that there has been a significant delay.

“If not, you would have clearly been going to jail today.”

James Glewis, 29, the co-owner of Italy on High Pizzeria in Preston, has avoided jail on a series of drug and guns charges.

Glewis was the target of an investigation and early morning raid by Taskforce Echo investigators, who kicked down the door of his Bogong Ct, Lalor home in March 2018.

They found the 29-year-old asleep on a couch in the garage, with seven cannabis plants growing in the backyard, two rifles, 250 rounds of ammo, 205 ecstasy tablets, a baton and more than $65,000 in cash in a Gucci handbag.

In a subsequent raid on the Italy on High pizzeria, which he co-owned, police found a 27g bag of cocaine hidden in a cooler bag in a room which only Glewis had a key to.

Glewis insisted to police that $2000 of cash found in his wallet was to pay staff at his pizza joint, but refused to provide details about how he managed his payroll.

The court on Thursday heard Glewis had kept out of trouble with the law since his arrest in 2018, and had made efforts to quit drugs.

Ms Tregent said he was “significantly drug free” but that he would have to do a “serious amount of (unpaid) work” as part of his sentence because of the “seriousness of the offence”.

He was also ordered to forfeit $66,440 in cash that police seized during the raid, and which he admitted were the proceeds of crime.