Marko Lipovac: Gold Coast stalker jailed for cocaine, methamphetamine busts

A Gold Coast painter who formerly served hard time for stalking a woman has continued to offend, this time admitting in the Supreme Court to possessing large quantities of coke and meth.

Browns Plain man Marko Lipovac, 42, formerly of Labrador. Picture: Facebook

A former Gold Coast man who previously served hard time for stalking a woman has continued to offend, this time admitting in the Supreme Court of Queensland to possessing large quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine.

Browns Plains man Marko Lipovac, 42, a painter formerly residing at Labrador, appeared before Justice Catherine Muir in Brisbane on March 20, where he pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing a schedule 1 dangerous drug in excess of 2g.

Details of Lipovac’s offending were contained within Justice Muir’s sentencing remarks, which were made publicly available on Monday, May 26.

The first offence was committed on August 10, 2023, when Lipovac was discovered in possession of 79g of cocaine at Carrara. Lipovac was on bail at the time.

Marko Lipovac outside Southport Courthouse in circa 2021. Picture: File

Then, on March 3 last year, when Lipovac was simultaneously on bail and parole, he was found in possession of 7.3g of meth at Surfers Paradise.

Justice Muir told the court he would sentence Lipovac on the basis the drugs were for a mixed personal-commercial purpose, and he accepted Lipovac was drug dependent at the time they were committed.

The court heard Lipovac had served 535 days in pre-sentence custody, from August 10, 2023 to January 9, 2024, and again from March 2024 to the date of his sentence in the Brisbane Supreme Court.

However, the 535 days were not solely attributable to the current offending, due to a series of parallel criminal cases involving Lipovac in the Southport Magistrates Court.

On November 28, 2023, he was sentenced for unlawful use of a motor vehicle, several assaults and contravention of a domestic violence order, and on September 23 last year he received a further custodial sentence for additional domestic violence offending.

Lipovac was sentenced in the Supreme Court of Queensland at Brisbane on March 20 this year. Picture: David Clark

Earlier, in February 2021, he pleaded guilty to unlawful stalking, assault occasioning bodily harm, wilful damage, and possessing drug utensils, with the court told on that occasion Lipovac’s offending was “clearly unhinged”.

In his sentence for the current matters, Justice Muir said Croatian-born Lipovac emigrated to Australia in 1994 alongside his family, but the move was difficult and the defendant was impeded by his lack of English language skills.

The court heard he managed to pull himself up by his bootstraps, establishing his own successful painting business, but at the age of 30 he was jailed by the Victorian courts for cultivating cannabis.

The jail sentence “destroyed” his business and led to the banks foreclosing on his home, Justice Muir said.

It was when Lipovac moved to Queensland in mid-2014, and his father died, that he became involved in hard drugs.

Justice Muir sentenced Lipovac to four-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, with parole eligibility set as at the date of sentence, March 20.

Originally published as Marko Lipovac: Gold Coast stalker jailed for cocaine, methamphetamine busts