The mother of a woman who helped her father conduct a multi-million drug business from their home on the South Coast has described her ex-husband as a "narcissistic manipulator", and her daughter as his victim.
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Debra Bailin said if she had not left her former husband, Luigi Fato, two decades ago, over his criminal dealings, it would be her facing charges in court instead of her daughter.
"If I hadn't left him, it would have been me sitting there," Mrs Bailin said, gesturing from the witness box of a Sydney courtroom on Friday, September 18, to where Emma Fato, sat beside her solicitor.
"That's the way he worked; if you didn't do things for him he would make your life hell, not physically, but mentally.
"I know my daughter's not a criminal, she's a victim [of her father]."
Mrs Bailin told the court she and the children always knew Fato was "a crook" - years of begging him to stop had fallen on deaf ears - but the family only became aware of the extent of his operation after his arrest.
Fato and his associate Hank Pickett were arrested in February 2014 after they were monitored selling 21 pounds of speed to undercover officers at Gundagai and later pleaded guilty to serious drug and criminal group charges.
The group was also responsible for a 2750-plant cannabis crop found at a property at Crowther, north-east of Goulburn.
Emma Fato, who the court heard had acted as a pseudo-secretary for her father by passing messages to group members, doing his banking, collecting drug money on his behalf and keeping him informed of developments while he was overseas, was arrested in August last year.
She subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of participating in a criminal group and dealing with proceeds of crime (relating to almost $45,000 in bank transfers and cash).
In court on Friday, Defence lawyer Rob Macaulay urged Judge Paul Conlon to spare Emma Fato full time jail in favour of a suspended sentence.
He claimed his client, who had returned after a decade away to live at the family’s East Lynne property following a relationship breakdown, was "particularly susceptible" to his manipulation.
"She was particularly vulnerable to the predatory behaviour of her father's [criminal] desires and influences," he said.
"She laboured under the misapprehension that it was sufficient for her to stand on the periphery while her father continued to conduct his business ... she believed her conducting small tasks for him didn't make her a participant."
Judge Paul Conlon released the 35-year-old, now living with her mother in Ulladulla, without bail, ahead of sentencing on October 20.
Luigi Fato will be sentenced at a later date.
Picket was recently sentenced to 13 years jail, with a non-parole period of eight years, beginning in February next year.
A third man arrested with them in February 2014, John Sydney Finlayson, has pleaded not guilty to drugs charges and goes to trial later this year.