The heartbroken family of a cyclist left for dead on the road have asked the man who killed him for one thing.
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An apology.
"You serving a longer sentence will never bring back my great uncle," Mauranga Pita said, in a letter read to the County Court on Tuesday.
"I hope that somewhere in your heart you tell the truth about how you came like a thief and stole my great uncle from us."
Makaro Manapori, 58, died on the road after he was struck while riding a bike in Melbourne's southeast on January 6, 2022.
But Peter Koutsogiannakis, 30, refuses to admit he was the driver, despite a jury finding him guilty of the hit-run.
He drove through a red light when he hit Mr Manapori, at the intersection of Pound and Hallam roads in Hampton Park, and set the car on fire after the crash.
He turned himself in to police on legal advice after a photo was released to media of him running away from the car he destroyed.
"I couldn't live with myself," he told officers during his interview.
Despite this, Koutsogiannakis continues to deny he was behind the wheel and continued to offend after the fatal crash.
Prosecutor Deanna Caruso said Koutsogiannakis did not brake, was speeding and driving while disqualified when he hit Mr Manapori.
He drove off knowing he had left someone for dead.
"There was no effort to slow down or alert anyone the deceased needed assistance, he didn't turn around or make a call," she said.
The prosecutor called for a long jail-term to protect the community after reading out his criminal history, which includes being in and out of prison for police pursuits, speeding, careless driving and car thefts.
"The issue is, the moment he gets out (of prison) he reoffends," she said.
Koutsogiannakis' barrister Philip Skehan said his client became addicted to drugs and was rehabilitating himself while in prison.
He said the crash was a "watershed moment" for Koutsogiannakis and he was ready to move into a law-abiding life.
However, Judge Frances Hogan said "it was probably only a matter of time before he killed someone".
"Maybe he's morally bankrupt," she told the pre-sentence hearing.
"Within weeks of leaving a human being like road kill on the side of the road, as the jury has found, he's back ... driving while disqualified, creating a collision, endangering others, fleeing from the scene."
She said his denial of the offending continued to traumatise Mr Manapori's family and forced police to pour an enormous amount of resources into their investigation to prove his identity as the driver at trial.
"He's repeatedly thumbed his nose at the law, thumbed his nose at police," Judge Hogan said.
"We've got, not only a seriously grieving family, we have police who have to go and scrape the remnants from the roads of people who were badly injured and killed.
"He will have to live with what he's done for the rest of his life."
Koutsogiannakis will be sentenced on July 19.
Australian Associated Press
