Desperate father jailed, 38kg of dope seized after raid at East Bentleigh drug den
A 55-year-old Italian man desperate to make ends meet after his business went bust came Down Under for a brighter future. Instead, he got caught up in the murky world of minding a Bentleigh East drug house.
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A desperate father who turned to crop sitting at an East Bentleigh drug den after his business went bust has been jailed.
Italian national Viktor Vata, 55, pleaded guilty in the County Court on August 17 after keeping watch at the Bethwyn St property which housed close to 80 cannabis plants weighing 38kg.
Police raided the house and found the plants sprawled across a number of rooms as well as $6000 cash in $100 notes inside the loungeroom on August 14 last year.
An electrical bypass was also fixed inside the property’s roof, which United Energy estimated diverted more than $8400 worth of power.
The father of one, who was there when the house was raided, denied any knowledge of the crop.
But CCTV footage caught Vata and another man paying rent for the property at a Commonwealth Bank in Chadstone one day prior.
In a victim impact statement, the property’s owner said they had been left “traumatised” after learning of the sophisticated set-up and was troubled by economic loss as a result of additional damage to the house.
Vata, who has no criminal history and does not speak English, moved to Australia on a tourist visa in 2018 after his Italian construction business failed three years earlier.
And when his application for a student visa was denied when he arrived, Vata went to extreme lengths to support himself.
“I accept there is no evidence that you actually attended to the plants yourself,” Judge Mark Dean said.
“Your role was to secure the premises and the cannabis crop, and (you) performed this role for financial reward.”
The raid followed two more police hits on firearm and drug dens in East Bentleigh and Bentleigh on June 24, where seven people were arrested by detectives as part of Operation Diligent.
Police seized a commercial quantity of ice, trafficable quantities of cocaine, cannabis, GHB, steroids, various prescription medications and documents and equipment for the manufacturing of drugs.
Vata pleaded guilty to cultivating a commercial quality of a narcotic plant, theft and dealing with property suspected being the proceeds of crime.
He was sentenced to two years and three months behind bars with a non-parole period of 14 months.
Mr Dean said it was “likely” Vata would be deported at the end of his sentence.
brittany.goldsmith@news.com.au
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