A judge has described a man's offending as "an exercise in male entitlement" as he jailed him for picking up three women and sexually assaulting them under the guise of being an Uber driver.
Francesco De Luise, 60, faced Melbourne's County Court on Thursday where he was jailed for at least six years for sex attacks on three different women between 2021 and 2022.
However, he was not added to Victoria's sex offender register, despite the prosecution applying for him to be as he posed a risk to sexual safety.
Each of De Luise's victims had been out drinking and were stuck next to him in the passenger seat of his car when he began to sexually assault them.
They had all got into his car believing he was their Uber driver.
"This is an exercise in male entitlement and has to be absolutely condemned as such," Judge John Smallwood told De Luise, a father-of-three and former IGA supermarket boss.
"There needs to be appropriate punishment."
One of the women stood before the court and said she thought she was going to die when she realised De Luise was not her Uber.
"It's something no person should ever have to experience," she told the court on Tuesday, between tears.
De Luise raped her in September 2022 after picking her up from a night out in Richmond, believing he was the Uber her boyfriend had called.
"You don't care do you? You got in the car," he told the woman.
Her boyfriend called police and raced to find his partner in the front passenger seat of the car as De Luise sexually assaulted her.
She recorded the incident on her phone.
Another of De Luise's victims, who was picked up by him outside Sidney Myer Music Bowl after trying to hail a taxi, said once inside his car "I felt it was a weapon".
"I had no power over where it took me, how fast it went or what the driver did," she said, in a statement to court.
He made her get into the front seat and said "I need two minutes" as he masturbated in front of her.
De Luise committed the first sex assault in January 2021, after he pulled up in front of a woman outside a Melbourne CBD club and asked if she was waiting for an Uber.
She had her head down as she sat next to him, and needed to vomit, but he continued to touch her.
"Come on, give me a shot," he said, swearing at her after she demanded to be let out of the car.
De Luise claimed his life had spiralled after investing in a $6 million property scheme, which collapsed during COVID-19, when he offended.
But he lied to police when he was interviewed and blamed his victims.
De Luise, who pleaded guilty to six charges including rape, sexual assault and sexual activity directed at another person, sat silently in the dock with his mouth agape as Judge Smallwood sentenced him.
The judge said the offending was made more serious by the "sheer vulnerability and powerlessness" of the three women, who were all stuck in a situation they could not escape from.
"Each of the victims was alone, each of the victims was intoxicated and effectively in circumstances where they found themselves trapped," he said.
Judge Smallwood handed De Luise a maximum eight-and-a-half year sentence, and he will be eligible for parole after six years.
He has already served 97 days of his sentence.
The judge did not add De Luise to the state's sex offender register as he found his risk of reoffending was low to moderate.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
