Director of Public Prosecutions v Bojadzievska
[2025] VCC 1220
•22 August 2025
| aIN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 24-01701
CR 24-01702
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JACOLINA BOJADZIEVSKA and TROY NITSOPOULOS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 7 August 2025 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 22 August 2025 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Bojadzievska & Anor. |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 1220 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:Criminal Law – Guilty Plea – Sentence
Catchwords: Trafficking a Drug of Dependence – Imprisonment – Good prospects of rehabilitation – high moral culpability –Possessing Proceeds of Crime – Co-Accused
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act, s6AAA
Sentence:Bojadzievska – TES 23 months, NPP 13 months,
Nitsopoulos – TES 26 Months, NPP 15 Months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
For the DPP | P. Pickering | OPP |
For Accused Bojadzievska | B. Franjic | Balmer & Associates |
For Accused Nitsopoulos | H. Rattray | MK Criminal Law |
HIS HONOUR:
1Jacolina Bojadzievska, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence (3 charges), possessing a drug of dependence and dealing with what is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime on 1 February 2024.
2Troy Nitsopoulos, you have pleaded guilty to trafficking a drug of dependence (4 charges), possessing a drug of dependence and dealing with what is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, namely cash, on 1 February 2024.
3The agreed basis for your guilty pleas is set out in the prosecution opening dated 5 August 2025.
4In summary, on 1 February 2024, police executed a search warrant on the apartment you shared in the building at 635 St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
5During their search of the various rooms and locations, they discovered the following drugs:
·18 separate bags of MDMA amounting to 102.1 grams mixed, 70.34 grams pure (Charge 1).
·Nine separate bags of cocaine amounting to 315.2 grams, 99 per cent pure (Charge 3).
·In excess of 10 separate bags of ketamine amounting to 134.8 grams, 81 grams pure (Charge 4).
·Smaller amounts of amphetamine (28.5 grams); cannabis (6.9 grams); diazepam (138 tablets); methylphenidate or Ritalin (less than five grams); and 3,4 methylenedioxyamphetamine, MDA (1.9 grams) (Charge 5).
6Police also found the following:
·$36,100 cash of yours, Mr Nitsopoulos, you claimed, reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime (Summary Charge 24 Nitsopoulos);
·Bags of creatine, a common cutting agent used to dilute drugs;
·Items associated with trafficking including a vacuum sealer, packets of envelopes, empty deal bags and empty drug capsules;
·In your garage a Porsche Cayman registered to you, Mr Nitsopoulos, currently the subject of contested proceedings in the Magistrates Court, and I will have no regard to that; and
·A Porsche Macan registered to you, Ms Bojadzievska, reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime (Summary Charge 16 Boajdzievska)
7On your mobile phones police found encrypted messages revealing messages relating to trafficking over several months – over August 2023 until January 2024 for you, Mr Nitsopoulos, and from December 2023 to January 2024 for you, Ms Bojadzievska.
8You will not be sentenced for trafficking on those dates, but this evidence shows that your trafficking on the day of the search was not isolated, and your counsel did not suggest otherwise.
9Police also searched your apartment, Mr Nitsopoulos, at 317 New Street, Brighton, where they located and seized a further four bags of MDMA amounting to 114.6 grams, 84.66 pure (Charge 2).
10Following your arrest, neither of you made comments during your police interview. You both spent one night in police custody before being released the following day on bail. You have each remained on bail since, on conditions including daily reporting and curfew, which I accept are intensive conditions.
11Your cases were adjourned several times before you were committed, without contest, on 3 October 2024 to this court, and this involved delays while you waited for the drugs to be analysed before offering to plead guilty.
12At a case conference in this court on 13 March 2025, you then both agreed to plead guilty to charges by then negotiated and which largely, if not wholly, you had offered the previous October, or thereabouts. While your plea did not come at the earliest possible stage, I accept it was reasonably early and well before the matter went to trial.
13I find that your guilty pleas demonstrate your acceptance of responsibility and your willingness to assist the course of justice. This has real benefits to the community in avoiding the cost and inconvenience to all involved of a trial. I also accept that it reflects, to a degree, remorse.
Personal circumstances – Bojadzievska
14Ms Bojadzievska, you grew up in Melbourne in a safe and stable home. You completed school and then obtained a degree in marketing at university. You met Mr Nitsopoulos in 2010 and since 2017 you have been living together as partners.
15Your counsel, Ms Franjic, in a comprehensive plea submitted that you had an impressive work history, having worked consistently from 2004 to 2019 for various companies including nationally in marketing co-ordinator, national communications co-ordinator and marketing manager roles.
16Ultimately, you stopped work because of the pandemic, a sinus infection and your increased dependency on drugs. The medical material reported on in your plea material indicated your cocaine use was a possible cause of the infection.
17You re-commenced work in 2022 until July 2023, and since your release on bail, in early 2025, having already been released on bail in 2024, you obtained a short contract in marketing and more recently have commenced further work as a marketing manager in a hospitality management company. You have not disclosed to your employers this case or your offending.
18Your only criminal history is a 2013 charge of using a carriage service to harass somebody, for which you were fined without conviction. I do not find that that has any relevance to this sentencing process.
19By early 2024 you report being in the clutches of addiction, consuming about two grams of cocaine daily. This had become worse, you say, because of ongoing stress including the impact of your nasal infection, your father's unfortunate decline and passing in 2022 and the effects of the Covid pandemic.
20Since being granted bail on 2 February 2024, after a night in the cells, you reportedly simply stopped using cocaine and any other drugs without any treatment or professional support. Ultimately, I regard your report of such high levels of cocaine use in the time leading up to your arrest to be doubtful in the light of your immediate cessation without assistance, but I do not make any findings against you in that respect.
21After three months, in May 2024, you started to see a drug counsellor, Maria Hutchison, who provided a report dated 11 July 2025, (Exhibit 1 – Letter of Maria Hutchinson). She reported that you then commenced an 18-week outpatient program involving weekly counselling and online meetings for six weeks, then fortnightly counselling for eight weeks, and then monthly counselling for the months following. You undertook weekly drug screens covering May 2024 to July 2025. While a few results indicate the possibility of dilution of the sample, they consistently indicated a lack of drugs in your system (Exhibit 2 – Urine Drug Samples).
22Ms Hutchison gave evidence before me confirming that you initially took some time to accept or recognise your previous dependence but that by July 2025 you said you understood you are better off without drugs and your relationship with friends and family have changed for the better, and I accept that.
23Clinical neuropsychologist, Dr Linda Borg, assessed you and provided a report of 12 May 2025 (Exhibit 3). She states that you have no significant cognitive decline since a head impact in a motor vehicle collision in 1997, from which you have demonstrated significant functional recovery. Any cognitive consequence was described as modest. There was no basis to say that any neurocognitive disorder contributed to your offending, and you were found to have sound planning skills and no evidence of impulsivity.
24Dr Borg noted your expressions of remorse. To me they seem centred on your recognition of the effect of your offending on those around you and the embarrassment to your family. You were quoted as saying you 'don't want this one bad decision to ruin [your] life.'
25What seems to be missing from the material is any expression grasping the true extent of your bad decisions, plural, and the true effects of drug trafficking of this kind on users in the community as a whole. Perhaps this is consistent with what Ms Hutchison observed of your difficulty in accepting the nature of your problem. Whilst I accept you have travelled a long way in rehabilitation since the beginning of 2024, in these respects I suspect you have a way to go.
26In their character references your friend, Pia Harrison, and your mother, Zora Bojadzievska, (Exhibit 4 – Character References) speak of your downward spiral into daily drug use and ultimately to your trafficking. They report that you have since then shown great resilience and strength in your rehabilitative efforts. I accept that they support you and have seen your positive achievements since your arrest.
Personal circumstances – Nitsopoulos
27Mr Nitsopoulos, you are now 48 and are the eldest of three children born to your parents and were raised in a stable and caring home. Looking back, you now report at times a lack of emotional connection and an expectation of high achieving.
28You completed high school, notwithstanding some bullying, and went on to gain entry into a degree in accounting at Swinburne University – you ultimately completed a two-year TAFE course in that respect. You also worked part-time and ultimately withdrew from the university course after a year to work full-time.
29You worked successfully for Telstra from the ages of 23 to 31, working your way up to what you described as mid to high-range roles. Then you owned and operated a successful, at least for a while, clothing store for two to three years before transitioning into real estate and property development.
30Since the time around your arrest you have developed online gaming software as a start-up business with a business partner of yours, which is apparently successful, employing a handful of staff.
31It was while you worked in real estate that a colleague introduced you to methamphetamine around age 30. For the first time you started to develop a drug habit. Through your 30s you reported social cocaine use, increasing in your early 40s to significant levels, you say. You were also using MDMA and ketamine.
32Upon commencing your intimate relationship with Ms Bojadzievska in about 2017, your combined drug use continued up until your arrest. Like Ms Bojadzievska, you report ceasing all drug use immediately upon your arrest. You admit replacing your drug use with drinking and vaping intensely. You report attending AA three times but struggled with what you described as the absoluteness of the program and did not continue.
33Ms Barbagallo in her report of 1 August 2025 (Exhibit 1), states you commenced weekly counselling with her in mid-May 2024 and continued until October. You then met fortnightly and then monthly to date. She reports your numerous drug screen results have all been clear. Ms Barbagallo reports that while you were initially somewhat closed off in your earlier sessions, you had since shown increased vulnerability, openness and reflection on your past behaviours and habits.
34Consultant psychologist, Luke Armstrong, reported on his assessment of you dated 24 July 2025 (Exhibit 2 – Armstrong Report). He states that you have high average intellect and a stable personality. While you qualified for, based on your report, a stimulant use disorder leading up to your arrest, it is now in remission. He finds that you will continue to need clinical oversight until you have been free of drugs for three years. I accept this.
35Friends, Dominic Guthrie, Michael Rouse and your father, Vassilios Nitsopoulos, provided character references for you (Exhibit 3 – Bundle of References). They speak of your openness in discussion about your offending and your regret, including for how it has affected the people who care about you. They refer to the major shift they have seen in you since. Your father observed you have once again become part of the family life and have expressed remorse.
Sentencing Issues
36The maximum penalty for Charges 1,2,3 and 4 is 15 years' imprisonment each. For Charge 5, possessing a drug of dependence, in this case by agreement, it is five years. For possessing what is reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime it is two years.
37I note that Charge 5 is a rolled-up charge encompassing multiple drugs of dependence and therefore a more grave offence than if it related to only one.
38The objective gravity of your trafficking is in my view, as your counsel accepted, not low but moderate to high, or in the high-moderate range.
39Your trafficking was of multiple different drugs. The quantities of them were significant. The MDMA in Charge 1 was 70 per cent of a commercial quantity pure. The MDMA in Charge 2 was 87 per cent of a commercial quantity pure. The cocaine in Charge 3 was 40 per cent of the commercial quantity pure, and the ketamine in Charge 4 was 81 per cent of a commercial quantity pure. As you conceded, this was not isolated offending.
40You both accepted, as the prosecutor submitted, that you were both responsible for all the drugs found at your St Kilda Road home. You were not alleged, nor do you submit you were, acting at the behest or direction of others, neither were you mere street dealers or couriers. Given your own habits on which you relied during your pleas, I find that you knew the kinds and quantities of drugs you possessed and were trafficking.
41I find your motive for trafficking was significantly for profit, albeit you also used some of the drugs. I do not find that your trafficking was made less serious by your addiction. You both commenced using drugs as adults, having had good upbringings, achieved high level education, obtained good jobs and held down positions of responsibility consistent with your abilities. I do not find that you suffered any significant impairment to your decision-making or judgment such as to reduce in any significant way the gravity of your offending or your blameworthiness for it.
42I find, therefore, your moral culpability to be high for what you did.
43Trafficking drugs such as these causes great harm to our community, it imposes great costs on those who become addicted and those around them. The community also pays a great cost in dealing with the consequences of trafficking. So, general deterrence, denunciation and just punishment are central sentencing purposes in this context.
44It is of course important to support people with addictions, including those who offend, in the hope of moving them away from such harm. You have both worked at this very task and I give you full credit for the steps you have taken.
45In arriving at your sentences, I have not given any significant weight to community protection but in light of the gravity of your offending, in its full context, specific deterrence has attracted a very moderate degree of weight in arriving at appropriate sentences.
46The principle of totality results in substantial concurrency between sentences on each charge to reflect that your trafficking was effectively a single operation, although relating to different drugs. However, the fact that you trafficked multiple drugs does make your total offending more serious.
47I do not find that the time that has passed since you were arrested reveals any relevant unfair delay in mitigation of sentence, but it has provided the opportunity to observe your efforts in rehabilitation which I accept to be significant.
48I regard your common offences to be engaged in jointly and will sentence you on par with each other on those charges.
49Your counsel each submitted that a community correction order, was an appropriate sentence, although your counsel Mr Nitsopoulos accepted that such an order may well need to commence after some time in custody. The prosecutor submitted as much.
50I made it clear during the hearing that I did not necessarily accept those submissions or concessions in light of the gravity of the offending in all the circumstances. I, nevertheless, had you both assessed for community correction orders to have the benefit of that assessment material (Exhibit A, Ms Bojadzievska; and Exhibit B, Mr Nitsopoulos).
51Ms Franjic referred to cases she said were comparable but only ones where trafficking simpliciter was the major charge in the case. Following discussion during the plea about this, ultimately, I do not accept the submission that these cases should attract greater focus in my synthesis than ones where trafficking simpliciter is not the major charge. I regard all sentences imposed for that offence to be relevant.
52Having considered all the matters, I have concluded that only a term of imprisonment adequately meets the relevant sentencing requirements.
53I find you have both good prospects of rehabilitation and have aimed to reflect this in the total sentence and the proportion of that sentence to be served before you may be released.
54I sentence you as follows:
On Charge 1, trafficking MDMA, in relation to both of you 18 months' imprisonment.
On Charge 2, trafficking MDMA, for you Mr Nitsopoulos alone, 18 months.
On Charge 3, trafficking cocaine for you both, 12 months.
On Charge 4, trafficking ketamine for you both, 18 months.
On Charge 5, possessing multiple drugs, one month.
On the Summary Charges of possessing property, for you Ms Bojadzievska, and cash, you, Mr Nitsopoulos, reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, two months.
55For you Ms Bojadzievska, two months of the sentence on Charge 3 and three months of the sentence on Charge 4, are to be served cumulatively upon each other and on the sentence on Charge 1, making a total effective sentence of 23 months' imprisonment.
56I fix your non-parole period as 13 months.
57For you Mr Nitsopoulos, three months of the sentence on Charge 2, two months of the sentence on Charge 3, three months of the sentence on Charge 4, are to be served cumulatively upon each other and on the sentence on Charge 1, making a total effective sentence of 26 months.
58I fix your non-parole period at 15 months.
59I declare that you have each served one day pre-sentence detention and direct that this be reckoned as a period already served under your sentences respectively.
60In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, but for your guilty pleas I would have imposed on you Ms Bojadzievska 31 months and fixed a 19-month non-parole period, and on you Mr Nitsopoulos, 35 months and fixed a 22-month non-parole period.
61I order forfeiture and disposal of the drugs and the cash as sought, noting that it was unopposed, and I order forfeiture in relation to the vehicle.
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