A high-flying Gold Coast businessman sold cocaine to women and prostitutes in exchange for sexual favours during his drug trafficking from his own office, a court has been told.
Mortgage broker George Boulos was unaware police had bugged his Southport office with cameras and microphones to reveal the lucrative trade he shared with associates over six months in 2016.
Brisbane Supreme Court was told on Wednesday how the broker’s “stupidity” caused him severe reputational and financial damage as he was handed a head sentence of five years’ jail.
Dressed in a dark suit and flanked by family and supporters in the public gallery, Boulos pleaded guilty to eight drug-related charges, including supplying, producing, trafficking and possessing dangerous drugs.
He also pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon.
The court was told Boulos, 46, was a “frequent” dealer of cocaine and methylamphetamine between April and October 2016.
His Southport office was used as a “distribution point” to supply drugs to his clients, many of them friends or associates, and he was supplying drugs up to six times a week.
Police installed a covert video device in his office and bugged his phone to reveal the extent of his drug trade.
The recordings revealed Boulos would retrieve drugs from his ceiling and prepare drugs in the office kitchen with a coffee grinder and clip seal bags.
Customers would at times snort cocaine.
Acting Justice Anthony Rafter said he supplied the drugs 160 times to about 15 customers.
“On some occasions you sold drugs to female customers in exchange for sexual favours,” Jstice Rafter said.
“You also supplied prostitutes with cocaine in exchange for sexual favours.”
On October 19, 2016, police executed a search warrant at the premises, locating cash, a taser, various mobile phones and drug-related items like a coffee grinder and clip seal bags.
Small amounts of cocaine and alprazolam were found in the ceiling.
Defence barrister Craig Eberhardt said his client had performed well while on bail for the last four years and had undertaken significant rehabilitation.
Mr Eberhardt said Boulos did not make a profit from the drug trade, at times selling the drugs for little more than what it cost to make them.
“He is otherwise a very worthwhile and contributing member to the community,” Mr Eberhardt said.
“This offending … was out of character and effectively an extension of his descent into cocaine abuse and dependency.”
The court was told Boulos’s marriage had been damaged because of his offending.
Justice Rafter sentenced Boulos to five years’ jail but ordered the term be suspended after serving 14 months behind bars.
“You had the financial means to satisfy your own cocaine addiction without resorting to selling cocaine,” he said.
“You did not need to resort to selling cocaine in order to satisfy your own habit.”
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