Sydney multi-millionaire and Pineapple Funding founder Andrew Spira pleads guilty to using fake passports

‘Make money, hijack a yacht, get an armed militia’: A Sydney multi-millionaire’s laughable plot to escape the law has been revealed in a Northern Territory court.

Andrew Spira faces the Darwin Local Court on a string of fraud, firearm and drug charges. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A Northern Territory judge burst out in laughter reading a Sydney multi-millionaire’s deranged plot to “make money”, “hijack a yacht” and “get an armed militia” after escaping the country.

The downfall of Pineapple Funding chief executive Andrew Spira was detailed in Darwin Local Court on Friday following his second clumsy attempt to flee Australia using fake travel documents.

Judge Alan Woodcock heard the 25-year-old business loan company founder was arrested in the lobby of the Darwin Hilton Hotel on May 22, with $38,000 in fraudulent transactions and a forged letter from his lawyers.

Police also seized a gun, a trafficable quantity of steroids and a copy of his “exit plan” to smuggle himself to Timor Leste, Vanuatu or several other Asian nations.

Andrew Spira faces the Darwin Local Court on a string of fraud, firearm and drug charges. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

The court heard his 40-point plan to get his drug business “back up and running” included pirating boats and forming a small army.

Spira’s defence barrister Nicholas Goodfellow said the 24-year-old was in a “spiral of self destruction” since being hit with domestic violence charges from his ex-girlfriend, Julia Maguire — who is 14 years his senior.

“He’s attached to a significantly older woman who’s really played a maternal role in his life,” Mr Goodfellow said.

“As that relationship fell apart, his ability to cope fell apart.”

Mr Goodfellow said before landing in Darwin, Spira was busted using fake identity documents at Sydney Airport, despite being on bail and carrying his real passport.

Andrew Spira in Antibes, France, 2022. Source: Facebook

The court heard the 24-year-old believed he was being “followed” and was hospitalised with acute drug-related mania.

He was released just three days later with only a referral for drug and alcohol counselling.

Mr Goodfellow said Spira continued plotting his escape, buying a boat and asking around for private planes before flying to Darwin, via Queensland.

Prosecutor Nicola Wright said the young start-up entrepreneur had “boasted” about his crimes, and questioned his rehabilitation prospects saying he was “highly proficient in fraud” as young as 13-years-old.

Andrew Spira. Picture: Supplied/Facebook

But Mr Goodfellow said his multi-millionaire client came from a childhood of abuse and neglect due to his parent’s own substance abuse and mental health issues.

He said this led to prolonged spates of homelessness, early drug exposure, and complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“He comes from money, he comes from the right side of Sydney, but unfortunately people are abused in those sorts of environments,” Mr Goodfellow said.

Ms Wright questioned whether the trauma in the golden ghettos of Sydney met the sentencing threshold in the Territory courts — which sees people from backgrounds of extreme deprivation and lengthy child protection histories.

Andrew Spira faces the Darwin Local Court on a string of fraud, firearm and drug charges. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

However Mr Woodcock said it was “no matter how much privilege or money you have if you’re neglected and hurt as a child”.

On Friday, Spira pleaded guilty to using and possessing a false document, dealing in identification information, possessing a firearm while unlicensed, failing to meet storage requirements, obtaining financial advantage by deception, making a false statement on an Australian travel document and drug possession.

Despite saying “ordinarily people would get a term of imprisonment for this offending”, Mr Woodcock sentenced Spira to an 18-month good behaviour bond with $38,720 victims payment and a $1000 aggregate fine.