By Jesse Graham
A Healesville man is appealing a sentence of four months in jail and a year of community work after trafficking ice and cannabis and skipping bail.
George Rallis, 40, was sentenced by magistrate Marc Sargent at Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on Friday, 3 February, after numerous court appearances, dating back to 2015.
Rallis pleaded guilty to numerous charges of possessing cannabis, methamphetamine (ice) and ecstasy, trafficking cannabis and ice, possessing an illegal weapon and failing to answer bail from 2014 through to 2016.
Rallis was first charged in March 2014, after repeatedly selling ice to a covert police operative at the Healesville Gymnasium in Crisp Street, where he worked at the time.
When first interviewed by police and asked the reason why he was selling drugs, Rallis replied: “I have no reason, a bit of extra money.”
Over the next two years, Rallis was charged with further offences while on bail for the original arrest, including more trafficking and possession charges, and had his bail extended repeatedly.
In one instance, 258 grams of cannabis was found at Rallis’s property after a search warrant was executed in 2015.
In August, 2016, Rallis was stopped by police after attempting to sign in for bail by leaving a note under the door, while having five warrants for his arrest – three for failing to appear on summons and two for failing to answer his bail.
“The applicant has no regard to being placed on bail as he has contravened his conditions a number of times,” a police statement read.
“Police believe that the accused is an unacceptable risk for bail due to his reoffending while on bail. Police believe he will keep offending to make a living.”
However, Mr Sargent said Rallis’s four-month jail sentence would have been a 15- month sentence were it not for his co-operation with police in identifying co-offenders and a supplier and his plea of guilty to the charges.
Rallis’s lawyer urged Mr Sargent to sentence Rallis to a “significant” community corrections order, rather than a jail sentence, and noted Rallis’s “positive progress” in drug rehabilitation.
He emphasised that Rallis had co-operated with police and made full admissions when interviewed.
In handing down his sentence, Mr Sargent said Rallis had used his employment at the Healesville gym as a way of finding people to traffick drugs to, and said his offending had been “serious”.
“Even in 2016, you were found with significant amount of drugs at different times,” he said.
He noted that, after an eight-day period in custody, Rallis had undertaken a drug treatment program, and urged him to “maintain that drug-free lifestyle”.
Mr Sargent said that ice often causes “pain and suffering in the community”, for the people who become addicted to it, their families, and people who are the victims of crimes such as theft which are used to fund drug habits.
For this reason, he said he had to impose a prison sentence.
He said the four-month sentence, with a 12-month community correction order, was a “very great discount” on what the sentence would have been without the guilty plea.
A Magistrates’ Court of Victoria spokesperson told the Mail an appeal had been lodged against Rallis’ sentence, and the matter will be heard in the County Court.
