Arson charges against teenage drug dealer dropped after court hears he set fire to his own car

A TEENAGE drug dealer has been granted bail after pleading guilty to setting his own car on fire

Sakelaris Amonginos pleaded guilty to setting fire to his own car. Picture: PFES

A TEENAGE drug dealer has been granted bail after pleading guilty to setting his own car on fire.

Sakelaris Amogninos, who turned 20 while in custody, appeared in the Darwin Supreme Court on Friday and pleaded guilty to causing damage to property, stealing and supplying less than a commercial quantity of cannabis.

The court heard Amogninos and his 16-year-old co-offender stole the wheel from another car when the tyre on theirs became flat while driving through Fannie Bay in January of this year.

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When the wheel from the other car didn’t fit, the court heard the pair set the car they were driving on fire.

Amogninos’s lawyer Peter Maley told the court his client was initially committed to stand trial in court for arson, but the charges were withdrawn after investigations revealed the car he had set fire to was his own.

“There’s not much you can say to explain that stupid immature behaviour,” Mr Maley said.

Amogninos was arrested the following day after police executed a search warrant on his home in Palmerston and found him to be in possession of almost 150g of cannabis, some of it divided into separate bags for sale.

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Mr Maley told the court his client had a difficult home life which contributed to his offending, before Amogninos himself told the court he wasn’t a “dropkick.”

“I haven’t been a drug dealer my whole life, I’m not some dropkick,” he said.

Amogninos was granted bail and is set to return to court on May 11 for sentencing.