A "socially incompetent" chef laundered drug money at his award-winning Canberra restaurant because he felt "caught up in a criminal web" he could not escape, a court has heard.
Courgette owner James Daniel Mussillon, 51, sat with head in his hands at various stages in the ACT Supreme Court on Wednesday, when he faced a sentence hearing related to five charges.
The renowned restaurateur had previously pleaded guilty to money laundering, perjury, making false evidence, general dishonesty and obtaining property by deception.
Agreed facts show Mussillon laundered $361,941 for a drug dealer by receiving money from that man's cannabis trafficking enterprise, then paying it back to him in fake "wages" between 2016 and 2021.
He also collected up to $175,000 in proceeds of crime from a car and moved it for the drug dealer in a separate, one-off incident.
Mussillon refined the wage scheme at one stage in order to better conceal what he was doing, telling the drug dealer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, the payments would make him look "more legit".
He also produced what he called "bullshit payslips" to cover up the fact the man did not work at his Civic eatery.
The charade surrounding the cannabis trafficker and Courgette was also front and centre in the fraud offence, which involved Mussillon dishonestly claiming $31,900 in JobKeeper payments for that man.
He committed this crime around the same time he perjured himself in 2020 by lying to a court about the drug dealer's employment to help the man secure bail on unrelated charges.
The drug dealer also featured in the making false evidence offence, which involved Mussillon fabricating a loan document during a months-long attempt to convince police to hand over a six-figure sum of cash.
Police had seized the money in May 2021 from the Palmerston home of another restaurateur, Wing Hei Leung, who co-owned The Scholar in Dickson.
While Mussillon claimed this money was his and he had lent it to Leung, it in fact belonged to the drug dealer.
The court heard on Wednesday from Associate Professor Andrew Carroll, a forensic psychiatrist who assessed Mussillon at the request of the restaurateur's legal team.
Associate Professor Carroll told the court the celebrated chef, who had run several successful businesses, did not appear to need "extra money" and had not been driven by financial desires.
The offending in fact seemed to stem from Mussillon's "social incompetence", the psychiatrist said, describing diagnoses that included autism and a learning disorder.
Associate Professor Carroll said Mussillon "doesn't really have friendships", opining that naivety had resulted in the offender finding himself in "a predicament involving underworld figures" he feared.
"He felt caught up in a criminal web that he felt unable to extricate himself from," the professor said.
"But for his social incompetence, Mr Mussillon wouldn't have got himself into this bother in the first place. It just wouldn't have happened."
The court heard Mussillon had told Associate Professor Carroll he had not intended to engage in money laundering, claiming: "I haven't got the brains to work it out."
Challenged by prosecutor Keegan Lee about whether this was indicative of Mussillon downplaying his offending, Associate Professor Carroll told the court he thought the quip was "a self-serving distortion".
Mussillon, who is currently on bail, spent more than seven months behind bars following his arrest in August 2021, when police seized assets that included a Lamborghini he helped the drug dealer buy.
Mr Lee urged Justice David Mossop on Wednesday to send Mussillon back behind bars, arguing the time the restaurateur had already served on remand "just doesn't reflect the gravity of the offending".
The prosecutor sought to cast doubt on claims Mussillon had wanted to "extricate" himself from the offending, saying the suggestion was inconsistent with intercepted communications.
Mr Lee also took issue with Associate Professor Carroll's assessment of Mussillon, accusing the restaurateur of telling the psychiatrist "lies and half-truths".
Defence barrister Matthew Johnston SC argued in favour of an intensive correction order, noting Mussillon had endured "harsh" conditions while behind bars during a lengthy COVID-19 lockdown.
Mr Johnston said while Mr Lee's written submissions had described Mussillon as the drug dealer's "puppeteer", the pair's relationship had always involved the top chef acting to benefit the other man.
He told the court Mussillon had only received "headaches" in return.
"It's quite clear the puppeteer here is [the drug dealer]," Mr Johnston told Justice Mossop.
Justice Mossop said he would sentence Mussillon at a later date.
Leung was previously sentenced to a 12-month intensive correction order after he pleaded guilty to charges of general dishonesty and possessing proceeds of crime.
