Tamarama hit-and-run: Real estate guru Zissy Kokotsios charged over death of Sydney lawyer Mitch East – shocking post emerges hours later

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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 serious injuries to the head and chest by a passerby in Fletcher Street in Tamarama, in the city’s east, just after 4am on Sunday.

It is understood that the lawyer, who was a Harvard Law School alumnus, was dropped off by an Uber just moments before he was allegedly attacked and left for dead.

The alleged driver, Zissi Kokotatsios – who was the managing director of First Impression Property Group – handed himself in at the Granville police station just after 11am on Friday.

The Bexley man was charged with four offenses including careless driving causing death, driving while using a mobile phone, failing to stop and render aid to a person and dangerous driving.

About four hours after the alleged accident, Kokotsios posted a photo on social media of himself and his partner at a shopping centre.

28-year-old Mitch East (pictured with his girlfriend, Natasha Dunsby-Brown) was found by a passerby with serious injuries to the head and chest in Fletcher Street, Tamarama, just after 4am on Sunday morning.

Four hours after the alleged accident, Zissy Kokotatsios posted a selfie of herself with her partner at a shopping center (pictured). Post linked to Google Photo Drive

Police launched a search for the driver of a white Subaru Outback, who was seen on CCTV traveling on Fletcher Street at the time of the crash.

The post linked to Google Photos Drive, which included images dating back several years.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Kokotatsios has worked in a number of industries – from hospitality to engineering.

He worked as a Qantas engineer between 1989 and 2014, but within that time he also ran his own business as a mortgage broker and sold monitoring systems for goods in transit.

After leaving Qantas, he became the owner of a coffee and tea delivery business, Gourmet Coffee King, before he moved into the travel industry in 2016 as ‘Innovator’ for Innovators Travel Network.

Kokotatsios became marketing director for another company he owned in 2017, before becoming a senior director of a property company in 2021.

Following his arrest on Friday, his former colleague Marcel Kellerman told Daily Mail Australia that their professional relationship had ended a year ago – and he couldn’t be happier.

‘I finished working with him a year ago,’ Mr. Kellerman said.

‘Not being in business with them is the best thing that’s happened to me.’

Zissy Kokotatsios (pictured) was a real estate agent and longtime Qantas engineer

Mitch East’s mother tells New Zealand media the loss of her only child was ‘unbearable’

Earlier this week, Mr East’s mother told the media the loss of her only child was ‘unbearable’.

‘He was my only child, my reason for living,’ she told New Zealand publication, Stuff.

‘When he died I died. The pain is unbearable. That’s why I can’t think of saying sorry directly.

He described his son as ‘a good person with a good heart’.

Mr East’s heartbroken family arrived in Sydney from his home country of New Zealand on Sunday to support his heartbroken girlfriend Natasha Dunsby-Brown.

Their mother Ms Dunsby-Brown was seen outside the couple’s Fletcher Street unit on Monday as grieving friends stopped to drop off flowers.

Mr East studied law in his home country and held notable positions including senior counsel at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch terrorist attack and working as a lawyer at the large national firm Meredith Connell.

Officers are pictured responding to a crime scene in Tamarama on Sunday after an alleged hit-and-run

He moved to Australia around 2022 to work for his current employer, major firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, which has an office in Sydney’s CBD.

A spokesperson for Arnold Bloch Leibler told Daily Mail Australia that all employees were informed of the tragedy via an email on Monday morning.

Following the alleged hit-and-run, police began searching for the driver of a white Subaru Outback, who was seen on CCTV in the area at the same time as the accident.

At the time, NSW Police Inspector Jason Hogan urged the driver to come forward.

“To run into another human being and run away is an act of cowardice,” he told 7News.

‘They really need to present themselves at their local police station before we knock on the door.’

Kokotatsios was refused bail to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday morning.