A judge has expressed concern at the enjoyment a Wodonga drug dealer took in assaulting a young man over $50, with Scott Coates told he had acted like Tony Montana in the movie Scarface.
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Coates, 24, abducted and detained the man at his home, engraved him with a knife, stomped and kicked him and stole 91 items.
He entered guilty pleas to charges including drug trafficking, false imprisonment, kidnapping, intentionally causing injury and theft before Judge Elizabeth Gaynor in the Koori County Court on Wednesday.
Judge Gaynor said it was particularly concerning that Coates had appeared to enjoy the incident.
"You behaved like Al Pacino in Scarface," she said.
"The cruelty in it is concerning.
"It's $50.
"You're enjoying it.
"It amounts to a sort of mental torture, that's the thing that's really noticeable about it."
The victim, 19, had been subjected to a prolonged attack during the incident on December 18, 2020.
He was meant to transfer $50 to Coates for three grams of cannabis but fell asleep.
He was woken by Coates and Lochlan Nixon-May who kicked, kneed and punched him for about 10 minutes.
The pair took the victim from a Wirilda Close home, bundled him into a black Mitsubishi Lancer, and drove him to his home on Castle Creek Road.
The victim was told he would be killed if anyone was inside.
The attack continued at the property, which the pair ransacked of items including clothes, gold chains, a Google Mini, iWatch, video games and more.
The victim's neck was squeezed for about 30 seconds and he was made to sign over a car.
Aunty Pam Pedersen on Wednesday told Coates, who is Indigenous, what he had done was "shocking".
"You've damaged him," she said of the victim.
"He's hurt, you've hurt him deeply."
Coates had been bailed onto a court program but was sent back to custody following another assault, which Judge Gaynor said was deeply concerning given the supports in place.
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"You've been done for assault again," she said, with the court told that matter was also drug related.
Coates remains in custody at Fulham prison and will be sentenced on March 25.
Nixon-May will return to court on March 28.
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