An amateur footballer and drug user busted selling individual hits of cocaine he once dubbed "bad boys", has narrowly avoided time behind bars after a judge accepted he'd been clean and sober for more than a year.
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Judge Andrew Haesler said Save Treneski had done "everything he could" to turn his life around following his arrest in July last year, including participating in intensive drug treatment and rehabilitation programs and cutting himself off completely from his former life.
He sentenced Treneski to a community-based intensive correction order for a period of two years and ten months, despite the court hearing Treneski had been on a similar order for drug matters at the time of his arrest.
"There's nothing before me to indicate he [Treneski] will be made a better person if he spends time in jail," Judge Haesler said.
"To the contrary, he'll be forced to associate with people he's sought to avoid contact with."
As part of the sentence, Treneski must do 200 hours of unpaid community service work and undertake any drug treatment courses or drug testing as ordered by Community Corrections staff.
Yeah too easy, too easy, four of the babies, four of the bad boys.
Court documents revealed Treneski was busted for cocaine possession in 2019 and was sentenced to an 18-month intensive correction order in the Local Court.
However, he began using drugs again less than six months later, and turned to dealing to support his habit.
Police attached to Strike Force Irma were watching the 35-year-old and listening in on his phone calls as he utilised social media and messaging apps to organise and negotiate the sales.
The court heard Treneski supplied cocaine on at least three occasions each month between February and his arrest in July, selling a total of 24 grams to multiple associates.
In one deal, Treneski agreed to supply six people with a gram of cocaine each after a mate contacted him and said "a very good friend of mine, you've met him before, is at Wollongong Golf Club with six guys and they are thinking one each."
In another, Treneski was overheard referring to individual cocaine hits as "bad boys" when a buyer contacted him.
"Yeah too easy, too easy, four of the babies, four of the bad boys," he said.
Treneski pleaded guilty to three counts on ongoing drug supply, with barrister William Whitby telling the court his client was a changed man.
"He says, 'I no longer take drugs and I no longer want to," Mr Whitby said.
He also said Treneski, who still lives with his parents in Cringila, had come clean about his drug habit and offending to his soccer club, the Unanderra Hearts.
"They've accepted he's changed his habits completely," he said.
"He's told them about the charges and he's back playing soccer."
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