South Australian woman Marika Kotzadimitriou, 32, escaped jail time for lying to a District Court judge so that her dreams of studying medicine would not slip away.
Judge Paul Cuthbertson told her to “get on with her life” after putting her on a good behaviour bond and warned her that she is “easily running out of chances” if she faces court again.
“It must be conceded it was a deliberate, misleading to the court … and seems to have been rather cold bloodily conceived to assist the defendant into obtaining a lower sentence,” he said during Wednesday’s hearing.
“You may consider yourself a little lucky you got these bonds, but I am cognisant of the fact this was all one episode, mixed in together.
“If you adhere to the bonds then this will be the end of the matter, and you can get on with your life and do the best you can with it.”
Ms Kotzadimitriou had falsely claimed her former boyfriend was the driver of a motor vehicle caught committing an offence on camera in November 2015. In 2017, she entered a good behaviour bond for two years after the offence was dealt with in court.
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Ms Kotzadimitriou was charged with three counts of trafficking a controlled drug which she plead guilty to following a police investigation into meth trafficking in Adelaide’s northern regions from October 2015 through to March 2016.
Ms Kotzadimitriou had told court she had completed a nursing degree and was beginning another in medicine.
“She asserted to the judge that whether she would be able to continue in her medical degree would depend on her receiving a sentence without conviction for the trafficking offences,” Judge Cuthbertson said.
“The general tenor of the submission made was that her offending was a result of duress by members of an outlaw motorcycle gang.
“She asserted that the members of the gang had stayed at her house for three days, assaulting her partner and threatening her and that she was in grave fear of her safety and that of her partner and children if she did not work off the debts.”
Police found that she had only begun her nursing degree last month resulting in Ms Kotzadimitriou being charged with perjury, to which she pleaded guilty and apologised to the District Court.