A prominent Canberra nightclub boss has walked out of a Sydney court a free man after a judge acquitted him of cocaine dealing charges.
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NSW District Court Judge Colin O'Connor yesterday found Maurizio Gianpier Rao not guilty of involvement in a cross-border drug trafficking operation.
The accused man, owner of popular Civic nightclub Cube, was facing three charges of supplying an indictable quantity of cocaine.
The prosecution's case was based on intercepted phone conversations, allegedly partially coded and in Italian, between 37-year-old Mr Rao and another man in Sydney.
And when the second man was arrested in NSW, police allegedly found 3oz of cocaine in his car.
The NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions argued Mr Rao and his associate arranged the transportation of drugs from NSW across the border into the territory.
But the nightclub boss' legal team, Sydney silk Peter Hastings QC and Canberra solicitor Kamy Saeedi, argued the case was ''foredoomed to fail'' and asked for the proceedings to be permanently stayed before the trial got fully underway.
Judge O'Connor ruled in Mr Rao's favour on the ''foredoomed to fail'' argument in a brief hearing yesterday morning.
The defence contended the prosecution's case, at its strongest, assuming there was a transaction, would not prove their client intended to ''on-sell'' the drugs in the ACT.
At a hearing in Sydney's Downing Centre on Monday Mr Hastings argued the Crown's case suggested Mr Rao was ''supplied'' with cocaine rather than intended to supply the drug.
The intercepted calls between the defendant and his associate between July and August 2008 were largely in Italian, the court heard.
Prosecutor Michael Barr alleged the pair talked about ''three girls'', which the police said was a coded reference to the drugs.
The prosecutor also told the court the 84 grams of cocaine - or 3oz - was assessed at 85 per cent purity and could have commanded a street value of up to $25,000.
The Crown relied on an expanded definition of ''supply'', contained within the state's drug laws, which allows ''agreement to supply'' to constitute a crime.
Mr Hastings argued even under the expanded definition, Mr Rao's alleged conduct would not amount to supply.
The defence team also suggested the NSW court did not have the jurisdiction to hear the allegations because the accused man's involvement was being on the telephone in the ACT.
The prosecution responded Mr Rao's alleged actions threatened the ''peace, order and good government'' of NSW.
But because he had already found in favour of the defence, Justice O'Connor did not have to rule on the jurisdictional argument.
Speaking after the verdict, Mr Saeedi said his client, who was charged in June last year, was relieved at the outcome.