An Australian who travelled to Syria to fight with a terrorist group has faced court for hiding an unlikely side hustle from authorities.
Mehmet Biber, 30, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2018 for flying to Syria to join Islamist rebel group, al-Sham.
The Sydney man served his non-parole period of two-and-a-half years before again landing in trouble with the law — this time for not notifying authorities of his fake handbag business.
The NSW District Court heard that between October 2021 and April 2022, he “knowingly, recklessly and intentionally” contravened a control order, which carried a maximum penalty of five years behind bars.
Judge Mark Buscombe told the court that upon being released from prison, Biber was legally required to notify the Australian Federal Police of any work he picked up.
While working on an ad hoc basis as a carpenter, he followed his control order and told authorities, but the court heard he kept his decision to sell counterfeit luxury goods to himself and his associate.
Reading from agreed facts, Judge Mark Buscombe said the pair imported fake luxury items and advertised them on a Facebook page called “Designer Collections” and later “Designer House Official,” with Biber’s wife designing the logo.
The court heard they set up the business on October 17, 2021.
Shortly after, Biber transferred $220 to an online supplier to buy a replica Louis Vuitton handbag from Hong Kong. In January, 2022, he mailed a handbag to a customer’s address and received $350.
Judge Buscombe said Biber knew he should have told authorities about the business, telling a friend in a police-tapped phone call: “You need to understand, I can’t be directly, officially involved because included in the conditions you need to tell (police) what work you’re doing, know what I mean?”.
But he had a very different attitude after the AFP conducted a search warrant on his house on February 8, 2022, as part of his control order monitoring.
Following the search, he messaged his business partner on Facebook saying the police took photos the “merch” on his laptop.
“Honestly, I want out ASAP,” he wrote.
“I don’t want to have it on my mind, I want to wipe it clean ASAP”.
Judge Buscombe said while there was no evidence the crime was related to a terrorist act or funding of a terrorist organisation, offences of this type are “always serious”.
“(Control orders are) to protect the public from a terrorist act, prevent facilitation of a terrorist act and the facilitation of hostile activity in the country,” he said.
“Courts must do all they can to protect the public from the threats to our way of life”.
The court heard there “could be no doubt” Buscombe knew he should have reported the business, despite there being evidence of only one sale.
According to a psychological report, Biber spent several months of his prison sentence for travelling to Syria in a Supermax prison, which was “the worst period of his life”.
“Since being released, he struggled to find a role that could support wife and children,” Judge Buscombe said of the report.
“The (psychological report) said he had mild depression and moderate anxiety and felt anxious leading up to his arrest due to his financial circumstances”.
Biber was sentenced to a two-year community correction order (CCO), which had been discounted by 25 per cent due to his early guilty plea.
About 10 supporters were in court, as Biber’s parents hugged others and cried while their son escaped more jail time.
For this offence, he was in custody from his arrest on April 30 to May 4, when he was released on bail.
Under the CCO, Biber must not commit further offences, be supervised by community corrections, do 250 hours of community service work and abide by a curfew of 6am-8pm at his Granville home.