Ex-NRL player Elias fined over coke find
Former league player John Elias has been fined $500 after he was caught at a Sydney hotel with cocaine in his pocket.
The ex-footballer pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a prohibited drug after he was arrested during an afternoon of two-up at Balmain's Sackville Hotel on Anzac Day this year.
His barrister Ronald Driels told Downing Centre Local Court on Monday a jail sentence would be tough for the 51 year old, who was a teenager when he spent his first night behind bars.
"He's not a young fellow anymore, he doesn't play football anymore," Mr Driels said.
"I shudder to say this but he's had a life which does him no credit, in many ways ... he was put into Long Bay jail at 16 years old with people like (underworld murderer) Neddy Smith."
That first stint in lock-up was not Elias's last.
A police fact sheet tendered to the court states that Elias has been charged 20 times for offences involving violence, theft, drugs and guns.
He could not appear in person on Monday because he is currently serving time over a 2009 parole breach.
Court papers show that when detectives approached Elias on April 25 he pleaded with them to escort him somewhere less crowded so he "would not be publicly humiliated".
The officers took Elias to an underground car park and quickly discovered $745 in his pocket, along with a small bag containing 0.9 grams of cocaine.
"Upon arrest the accused said, 'Please don't lock me up, it will be a media frenzy. What can we do about this?'," the papers state.
Court papers show Elias was initially charged with corruptly offering one of the arresting officers $500 to let the charges slide.
But he denied the charge and it has since been withdrawn.
Mr Driels said his client was still living with his octogenarian mother in Punchbowl in Sydney's west.
He said gambling was Elias's "fundamental issue" and the lure of a game of two-up was to blame for this latest brush with the law.
"He had an uncle when he came to Australia who taught him how to play cards as a boy," Mr Driels said.
"That's how it all started."
