Paris Papakotsias: Oak Park teen stalks Coles Coburg worker
A young Oak Park thug had just got out of youth detention when he broke into homes — once pretending to be a police officer — stalked a man and attacked another. And his crimes didn’t stop there.
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A young thug went on a seven-week tear after he was released on youth parole, forcing his way into homes, stalking a man, attacking another and stealing vehicles.
Paris Papakotsias was sentenced to 17 months in youth detention at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, October 15, having pleaded guilty to a range of charges including aggravated burglary and stalking.
The wild Oak Park 19-year-old, who was 18 during the bender, fronted the court from custody while serving a sentence for intentionally causing injury back in 2019.
Papakotsias was one of four men who forced open the door of a Kings Park home on March 16 this year, purporting to be police carrying out a search warrant.
Fortunately no one was home to face the men, whose actions and claims were caught on CCTV, and they went on to steal cash, jewellery and electronics.
The day earlier Papakotsias had broken the lock on the front door of a Mitcham house and ransacked the property, stealing phones, electronics and jewellery.
A week later, on March 23, his fingerprints were found in a stolen Toyota.
In a separate incident on the same day he was arrested by members of the public after he stole a phone from a man he met up with in Main St, Coburg to discuss buying the device.
He then assaulted a father at Caltex Coburg on March 28, throwing a can of energy drink forcefully at his head.
The court heard Papakotsias had got into an argument with the man, who was with his 11-year-old son, about COVID-19.
The man then chased Papakotsias around the store and the teen threw a glass bottle at him, hitting him in the body.
Papakotsias stole a Mazda ute from a Roxburgh Park driveway on April 8 and crashed into the owner’s Mercedes in the process.
He also pleaded guilty to stalking a Coburg Coles Liquorland employee who refused to serve him throughout the whole seven-week bender.
Papakotsias repeatedly went to the store and harassed the man, swearing at him and threatening to assault him, and once told him he would find him on Facebook and “get people after him”.
The ordeal ended in Papakotsias trying to force his way into the closed store after 9pm on April 24, during which he tried to kick the man and yelled threats, before he was later arrested and held into custody.
The court heard the teen also repeatedly breached bail and committed thefts during his time on parole.
His lawyer told the court Papakotsias had gravitated towards an offending peer group after his parents separated.
Magistrate Maria Stylianou said it seemed the “really serious offences”, including the “disgusting” crime of burglarly had come about from Papakotsias being “just stupid”.
Expressing concerned for his youth, she ordered he go to youth detention instead of adult prison.
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