by Emily Woods, AAP
Less than three weeks after leaving a cyclist to die in Hampton Park, Peter Koutsogiannakis caused another dangerous crash.
Driving a stolen Mazda on January 23, 2022, he tried to skip through a queue of cars lined up at a train boom-gate.
Police tried to get him to pull over, but he sped onto the wrong side of the road and took off.
Koutsogiannakis then entered a bus lane against a red light and hit a Toyota sedan as they were turning right before striking a pole.
He then ran from the scene.
The 30-year-old Endeavour Hills man’s “pattern of lawless behaviour” was aired by Judge Frances Hogan in Melbourne’s County Court on Monday, as he was jailed for at least five years over an earlier deadly hit and run.
Koutsogiannakis drove through a red light and struck cyclist Makaro Manapori, 58, as he was riding to work in Hampton Park on January 6, 2022.
Mr Manapori was thrown 45 metres, with his bike found mangled and folded in half.
He was left “like roadkill” to die by Koutsogiannakis, the judge said previously, after he drove off and set fire to the stolen car used in the crash.
“You have shown yourself to have a sense of entitlement devoid of any moral qualms when it comes to … the safety of others on the road,” Judge Hogan said.
“Your previous appalling driving record and failure to learn from repeated offending … made it only a matter of time before you would kill someone.”
Koutsogiannakis was convicted for crimes including theft and dangerous driving over the crash which happened weeks after he struck Mr Manapori.
Driving dangerously had “become a way of life” for him, and his decade-long criminal record showed he had “scant regard” for the road rules and safety of others, Judge Hogan said.
“You present as a 30-year-old who has lived a self-indulgent, lawless lifestyle, and have been a repeated menace to society.”
She jailed him for up to seven years and 10 months.
He must serve five years and three months before he will be eligible for parole, and has already spent more than one year behind bars.
Judge Hogan said he had a complete lack of remorse for the offending, which he continues to deny despite handing himself into police.
Koutsogiannakis’ lawyer had contacted police after photos of him running after setting a car on fire were released to media.
“I couldn’t live with myself,” he told officers just before he was interviewed.
But he fought the charges at trial, claiming it was a case of mistaken identity.
A jury in June found him guilty of dangerous driving causing death, failing to stop at the scene and failing to render assistance to the dying Mr Manapori.
Koutsogiannakis remained silent throughout the hearing and his supporters in court cried as his sentence was handed down.
