By Goya Dmytryshchak
A former real estate director has pleaded guilty to possessing ice and importing a marketable quantity of a drug known as GBL to his Altona home.
David Costa, 36, had been in charge of Elders Real Estate’s Werribee and Tarneit offices for about 15 years, the County Court heard.
Costa ordered about $145 of gamma-butyrolactone – similar to GHB – online from overseas to be delivered to his Altona address.
The package containing a white plastic bottle of clear liquid weighing 1108 grams was intercepted by authorities, who substituted the GBL for a harmless substance.
In August last year, an Australian Federal Police officer posing as a courier delivered the package to Cotsta’s unit and he was arrested a short time later.
A search of his home uncovered several bags of methamphetamine with a pure weight of 2.7 grams, which Costa said was for personal use.
In her sentencing remarks, Judge Wendy Wilmoth said that as the real estate business boomed over the past decade, Costa worked very long hours under very high pressure.
“You had begun to use illicit drugs in a recreational sense during your mid-20s, but this had not been a problem until you experienced burnout from the pressure of work,” she said.
“This resulted in what you have described as a breakdown, which came to a head in 2016 when your relationship with your partner ended.
“You and your sister sold the business, reducing that cause of your stress but making available a large sum of money which then financed your increased drug use.
“You used GBL regularly combined with cocaine and amphetamines.”
Costa was given a two-year community correction order to perform 70 hours of unpaid work or to be used as time in treatment for drug abuse and mental health issues.
