Nicholas Ambatzidis pleads guilty to charges including drug trafficking after a police search
An Oakleigh South man has copped a strong warning from a magistrate after being hauled in over a raft of drug-related offences.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
An Oakleigh South man has avoided jail over drug trafficking charges after a middle man unintentionally exposed him during a police raid, a court has heard
Nicholas Ambatzidis, 21, pleaded guilty to 10 charges including possessing a firearm, drug possession and trafficking on March 21 at Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard police had undertaken a raid on a Mornington property in September 2022, where they discovered an iPhone with a significant number of text messages between the Mornington resident and Ambatzidis, regarding a large amount of cannabis.
The court heard officers undertook a further search on October 11 at Ambatzidis’ Oakleigh South address.
Ambatzidis was arrested in relation to trafficking cannabis while police searched his home.
The court heard investigators made a significant number of seizures from Ambatzidis’ home, including seven large zip lock bags containing 230g of cannabis in each, four .308 ammunition cartridges found in a black bag in a kitchen cupboard, $890 in Australian currency, 75g of loose cannabis in Ambatzidis’ bedroom, one zip lock bag with 10 capsules of psilocybin – a hallucinogen drug of dependence, one silver iPhone 10, one iPhone 13 mini, one black imitation firearm in his bedroom next to the bed, one black taser under his bed, nine tablets of LSD in a brown paper bag, three cigarettes containing cannabis and dimethyltryptamine – a psychedelic drug found in many plants and animals, one glass vial containing dimethyltryptamine and one zip lock bag also containing dimethyltryptamine.
When in custody, the court was told the 21-year-old made full admissions to most of the offending.
In relation to the seven bags of cannabis, totalling 1.75kg of the drug, Ambatzidis said he “wasn’t given a name for it”.
The court heard he also made full admissions to possessing drugs of dependence and a firearm.
“My friend accidentally gave it to me, and I forgot about it,” he told police.
The court heard Ambatzidis had recently been diagnosed with ADHD and autism, and was regularly seeing a psychologist prior to his offending, letting his treatment “drop off” when his behaviour started to escalate.
Magistrate David Starvaggi told Ambatzidis that he had a decision to make.
“You’ve got two choices going forward,” he said.
“Either you leave here and continue a life of crime, or you get back on the straight and narrow.”
“You need to continue your treatment. If you come back to court with charges like this again, it’s only going to get monumentally worse for you.”
Magistrates Starvaggi fined Ambatzidis $2000 without conviction, and ordered him to follow a community corrections order tailor made to his needs.
gemma.scerri@news.com.au
