By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim
Mark Maximos was the director of CCS 136 Castlereagh Pty Ltd (CCS), a supermarket and grocery store, over the period 8 May 2012 to 5 November 2020. In 2016, CCS opened a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) Business Transaction Account, with Maximos as the sole signatory to it. But then on 17 August 2016, CBA authorised Mohid Al Kilani to be another signatory, as ‘CCS manager’.
CBA then organised for merchant facilities and terminals to be installed at CCS in August 2016. But in 2018, eight unauthorised Mastercard transactions occurred between 3 and 13 of September 2018, which amounted to $746,500, and it ended up deposited into the CCS account, and the majority of these funds were then withdrawn prior to CBA identifying the dodgy transactions.
In terms of the distribution of the funds from the eight unauthorised credit card transactions, $347,780 was withdrawn in cash by Maximos or Al Kilani, with $100,000 of that transferred to cover credit in an account in Maximos’ name, $66,885 was used to cover credit card debts and placed in accounts also in Maximos’ name, and $96,480 was transferred to third party accounts.
CBA placed a stop on the CCS account on 13 September 2018, to prevent the withdrawal of $109,400, which had been deposited on the same day. Maximos left Sydney between 7 September and 5 October 2018 and is known to have visited Morocco and Melbourne. And Maximos presented himself to Auburn police station on 15 October 2018, at which point he was arrested and charged.
Matters at trial
On 22 August 2024, Maximos pleaded guilty in the Downing Centre District Court to recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime, or partaking in money laundering, contrary to subsection 193B(3) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). This crime carries up to 10 years prison time.
The fact that Maximos was ‘recklessly’ dealing with the proceeds of crime provides a lower level of culpability than if he’d been ‘intentionally’ dealing with it. If Maximos had ‘intentionally dealt with the proceeds of crime’, it would mean he was certain the money was suspect, but as he was only ‘reckless’ to the fact, it meant that he was aware there was a risk the money was dubiously sourced.
The court heard that Maximos had entered into an agreement with the CBA, in which he’d already paid back $50,000 worth of the proceeds of crime of which he’d withdrawn, and he’d agreed to pay further $15,000 monthly instalments to settle his debt.
Both the prosecution and the defence tendered their submissions on 28 August 2024. At the court hearing, it was found that Maximos had actually been on conditional release at the time of his offending in respect of fraud offences committed around December 2016, whereby he’d failed to repay the funds involved.
The court further heard that even though Maximos was said to have turned around his life by 2019, he was implicated in drug possession offences in 2023 and contravening an apprehended violence order (AVO) over 2019 to 20, which was when he was also charged but not prosecuted over stalk/intimidate. He was ultimately convicted of only one count of breaching an AVO.
When Maximos’ initial sentencing hearing adjourned on 25 October 2024, the prosecution tendered a range of materials that covered the circumstances of the dishonesty offences and breaches of an AVO, and it is information inadvertently included within this bundle that went on to provide the offender with his ground to appeal his sentence, because the AVO matters were the subject of attention at the sentencing hearing.
NSW District Court Judge Georgia Turner assessed the objective seriousness of the crimes at mid-range for the type of offending. And whilst the offending didn’t comprise of fraud, it did involve a high level of planning and organisation, along with a substantial amount of money and a high degree of recklessness.
Her Honour sentenced Maximos to 2 years and 6 months prison time, with non-parole set at 1 year and 6 months, on 20 December 2024. This reflected a 5 percent discount that was applied to the sentence, due to the utilitarian value of the defendant’s guilty pleas.
Appeal against severity of sentence
Maximos then appealed the severity of his sentence to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal (NSWCCA) on 23 February 2026. He did so based on the sole ground involving material having been inadvertently and incorrectly placed before the sentencing judge, which meant that her Honour fell into error in her remarks on sentence thus causing a material error.
The appeal revolved around the bundle of documents submitted by the prosecution on 25 October 2024, which included court attendance notices, factsheets in respect of earlier charges, along with charge sheets and the details around five matters dealt with and brought to finality by the NSW Local Court on 22 July 2020.
The 2020 Local Court matter had involved only one conviction of contravening an AVO, which involved one ‘rolled up’ count covering four instances of breaching the order. Another four charges were dropped, however, and there was extra information before that court relating to 11 AVO breaches.
But instead of the redacted facts from this past case being tendered during the proceeds of crime hearing, unredacted facts were tendered including the specific details of four extra sequences of breaching AVOs and those applying to one count of stalk/intimidate. The reason this occurred was the redacted version did not appear on the Local Court file whatsoever.
So, information before the NSW District Court that should not have been tendered included Maximos having allegedly followed his ex-partner’s car in his own and going on to move his vehicle ahead of hers and then braking suddenly in front of her.
In her summing up of the case, Judge Turner clearly referred to the details that shouldn’t have been before her. Her Honour mentioned the past domestic violence offences when considering ‘community safety’ in respect of what sort of sentence was required, and whether that could have been an intensive correction order (ICO), which is a custodial sentence that is served in the community.
Maximos “further contended that because those offences included the intimidation of the applicant’s then wife and the meting out of abuse to her, which was characterised by the sentencing judge as ‘serious offending conduct’, the assessment of the risk of reoffending was infected by matters”, not accepted or proven in the Local Court,” explained NSWCCA Justice Scott McNaughton.
His Honour noted that this occurrence was through no fault of the sentencing judge, as there was an error with the factual material, and this led to the ground being made out.
Resentenced on appeal
Maximos had submitted to the court that if resentencing occurred, he considered the large number of “lock in days”, he spent confined to his prison cell, amounting to 49 days, should be taken into account. He also contended that he should be able to serve an ICO in the community. And his Honour noted that greater supervision and availability of treatment programs, exists for ICO subjects.
In resentencing, Justice McNaughton agreed with Judge Turner that Maximos should receive a 5 percent discount on sentence for his pleas of guilt. His Honour also found he should receive a lesser sentence. However, he didn’t agree that an ICO should replace the original sentence, as such an order cannot be backdated, and besides the inmate only had 3 months left on his non-parole period.
The NSWCCA justice further found ‘special circumstances’, as had the sentencing judge, in terms of it being Maximos’ first time in custody and also because he suffers a mental health condition.
Section 44 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) provides that a parole period must not exceed a third of the overall time an offender has been sentenced to, unless special circumstances are found. Such circumstances must indicate that the person being sentenced would benefit from a longer period of supervision in the community.
On 20 March 2026, Justice McNaughton resentenced Maximos to 2 years and 3 months prison time, with non-parole set at 1 year and 4 months. So, the appellant might be up for parole in April 2026, and his Honour’s colleagues, NSWCCA Justices Peter Hamill and James Emmett, agreed with his orders.
