The son of a prominent former Liberal politician has escaped jail after admitting to running a lucrative drug business on the dark web under the handle ‘AusCokeKing’.
Mark Chikarovski, son of the NSW Liberal Party’s first female leader Kerry Chikarovski, walked free from Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Friday.
The court heard how he used drug money to buy an eight-figure luxury property in an exclusive enclave just four days before he was caught selling drugs to undercover cops.
He was arrested in May 2023 and eventually pleaded guilty to a string of drug charges that involved supplying drugs online in exchange for cryptocurrency but will not spend another day in jail after he was sentenced to home detention.
When officers first arrested him at an apartment complex at Bondi Junction in Sydney’s east, they found large quantities of cocaine, MDMA and methamphetamine, as well as $269,000 worth of cryptocurrency.
Chikarovski was caught wearing gloves and packaging cocaine and MDMA into envelopes ready to post when officers swooped.
He had bought an $11.5 million property in Vaucluse in February 2023 just days before unwittingly selling drugs to an undercover cop in a sale that would lead to the raid and would two weeks later sell another in Bellevue Hill for $12.5 million.
Judge Jane Culver said she allowed him to serve a corrections order instead of a prison term as he had shown a commitment to rehabilitation, had prior good character, had insight into his own offending and suffered mental health impacts of his time already held in prison.
Judge Jane Culver said she believes the ‘heartache’ Chikarovski has caused his family will prevent him from reoffending (pictured Chikarovski and his mother)
Mark Chikarovski, the son of former NSW Liberal Party leader Kerry Chikarovski, was sentenced to home detention after pleading guilty to a string of drug offences
Chikarovski claimed he sold the substances to pay off debts he incurred funding his own drug habit.
But prosecutors said that was inconsistent with his lavish lifestyle, which involved him buying the multimillion-dollar properties, splurging on two Porsches and sending his children to an expensive private school.
Prosecutors argued the millions of dollars he gained on the Bellevue Hill house could have easily covered the alleged $150,000 he owed dealers.
Judge Culver also noted that Chikarovski was at a high risk of being attacked while in prison and had received threats of violence, which she labelled ‘a very troubling matter’.
Barrister Phillip Boulton SC, who previously argued his client’s upbringing with his mother in the public light had affected him negatively, admitted Chikarovski’s decision-making was ‘stupid’.
But he argued a series of mental impairments reduced his moral culpability for the offending, while he had also been exposed to serious trauma as a child.
‘The fact is he was under the burden of ADHD, trauma-based anxiety disorder, distortion in his personality traits and different parts of substance abuse,’ Mr Boulton said.
Chikarovski claimed he sold the substances to pay off debts he incurred funding his own drug habit but prosecutors said a recent multi-million dollar home sale could have paid off his debts
Chikarovski was caught after he did a number of drug deals with an undercover police officer, the first coming four days after he bought his Vaucluse pad.
Police said the 38-year-old received cryptocurrency in exchange for prohibited drugs on thousands of occasions since 2017.
Chikarovski used the dark web as what prosecutors termed ‘an online shopfront’, regularly promoting his drugs as ‘premium European-imported MDMA’ and ‘premium-grade cocaine’.
Dealing drugs, rather than downsizing his house or selling a car, was done to prevent his family knowing about his own usage, the barrister added.
Judge Culver described the offending as ‘far more sophisticated than the average street dealer’ via his use of the dark web, his ability to advertise and the protection using cryptocurrency gave him.
He was arrested in May 2023 for supplying drugs on the dark web under the username ‘AusCokeKing’ in exchange for cryptocurrency
‘Unlike a street dealer, I am persuaded that the offender’s operation permitted him to advertise (his business) … securing users on the dark web without him having to have trusted customers.’
The judge imposed a 35-month sentence to be served as a corrections order, which included 18 months of home detention and 500 hours of community service.
He was also given a 16-month prison sentence, although he has already served the eight-month non-parole period.
Chikarovski would breach his order if he reoffends, uses illegal drugs or fails to comply with his treatment program.
‘He knows the heartache he has caused his family … he has shattered the sense of stability they deserve,’ the judge said.
‘It might be tempting to use a high-profile person with ostensibly significant assets as a vehicle by which to send a message to the community … the law requires the sentencing not use this offender as the ordinary vehicle to send this message.’
Chikarovski is the son of Kerry Chikarovski who was the state’s Liberal leader from 1999 to 2002 as the state’s first female opposition leader and regularly commentates on political issues on ABC’s The Drum show.
She has since founded her own consultancy firm, Chikarovski & Associates, and is a board director for home delivery meal service Tender Loving Cuisine.
Ms Chikarovski also sits on the board for a number of different organisations including NSW Rugby Union, Adopt Change, is an ambassador for Australian Indigenous Education Foundation and had a weekly radio show titled Chat with Chika between 2012 and 2014.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk