EXCLUSIVE
A 63-year-old real estate agent and longtime Qantas engineer has been charged over an alleged hit-and-run crash that killed a young lawyer in Sydney.
Mitch East, 28, was found with critical head and chest injuries by a passersby in Fletcher Street in Tamarama, in the city’s east, just after 4am on Sunday.
The lawyer, who was a former Harvard Law School student, is understood to have been dropped off by an Uber just moments before he was allegedly struck and left for dead.
The alleged driver, Zisi Kokotatsios – who was the managing director of First Impression Property Group – handed himself into Granville Police Station just after 11am on Friday.
The Bexley man was charged with four offences, including negligent driving occasioning death, driving while using a mobile phone, failing to stop and assist a person and dangerous driving.
About four hours after the alleged crash, Kokotatsios posted a photo on social media of himself and his partner at a shopping centre.
Mitch East (pictured with his girlfriend, Natasha Dunsbee-Brown), 28, was found with critical head and chest injuries by a passerby in Fletcher Street, in Tamarama, just after 4am on Sunday
Four hours after the alleged crash, Zisi Kokotatsios posted a selfie of himself with his partner at a shopping centre (pictured). The post linked to a Google photo drive
Police launched a search for the driver of a white Subaru Outback which was spotted on CCTV travelling on Fletcher Street around the time of the crash
The post linked to a Google photo drive, containing images going back several years.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Kokotatsios has worked in an array of industries – from hospitality to engineering.
He worked as a Qantas engineer between 1989 and 2014, but within that time he also appeared to run a his own businesses as a mortgage broker and sold monitoring systems for goods in transit.
After leaving Qantas, he became the owner of a coffee and tea distribution business, Gourmet Coffee King, before he moved into the travel industry in 2016 as an ‘innovator’ for Innovators Travel Network.
Kokotatsios then became a marketing director in 2017 for another company he appeared to own, before he became the senior director for a property company in 2021.
Following his arrest on Friday, his former colleague Marcel Kellerman told Daily Mail their professional relationship ended a year ago – and he couldn’t be happier.
‘I finished up working with him over a year ago,’ Mr Kellerman said.
‘Not being in business with him is the best thing to have happened to me.’
Zisi Kokotatsios (pictured) was a real estate agent and longtime Qantas engineer
Mitch East’s mother told New Zealand media that the loss of her only child was ‘unbearable’
Earlier this week, Mr East’s mother told media that the loss of her only child was ‘unbearable’.
‘He was my only child, my reason for living,’ she told the New Zealand publication, Stuff.
‘I died when he did. The pain is unbearable. So I just can’t think straight to talk sorry.’
She described her son as a ‘a good person with a good heart’.
Mr East’s devastated family arrived in Sydney from his home country of New Zealand on Sunday to support his heartbroken girlfriend, Natasha Dunsbee-Brown.
His mother Ms Dunsbee-Brown were seen outside the couple’s Fletcher Street unit on Monday as grieving friends stopped by to drop off flowers.
Mr East studied law in his home country, securing notable positions working as a senior advisor on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attack and as a solicitor at large national firm Meredith Connell.
Officers are pictured processing the crime scene in Tamarama on Sunday after the alleged hit-and-run
He moved to around 2022 to work for his current employer, major firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, which has an office in Sydney’s CBD.
An Arnold Bloch Leibler spokesperson told Daily Mail that all staff were notified about the tragedy via an email on Monday morning.
Following the alleged hit-and-run, police launched a search for the driver of a white Subaru Outback which was spotted in the area on CCTV about the same time as the crash.
At the time, NSW Police inspector Jason Hogan urged the driver to come forward.
‘It is a cowardly act to drive away after colliding with another human,’ he told 7News.
‘They really need to attend their local police station before we knock on their door.’
Kokotatsios was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday morning.