Do you think these guys are going to be scared by the...

Do you think these guys are going to be scared by the corporations law? Me thinks not.....

Sentence upheld

From the Takeovers Panel to cops wielding capsicum spray, trouble seems to follow corporate raider Ariel Silman.

Fresh from a slap from the panel over an undisclosed 30 per cent stake in World Oil accumulated by him and his dad, Silman fronted up to the County Court in Melbourne on Thursday to contest his sentence for drug possession and resisting arrest.

Prosecutor Danielle Guesdon told the court that on December 9, Silman ran a red light in St Kilda. He was pulled over by police who searched his car and found a small bag of white powder, later identified as cocaine.

The arrest seems to have been fairly vigorous, with police wrestling Silman on the bonnet of the car. According to a police report read to the court by defence counsel Scott Johns, Silman ran off after being sprayed with capsicum gas during the struggle.

While running away he was sprayed again, prompting him to yell: ''Stop spraying me.''

''Well, stop running,'' the cop chasing him responded.

Johns wanted a reduction in Silman's six-month suspended sentence, citing his ADHD and personality problems, but a criminal record described by Judge Tony Howard as ''very bad'' told against his client. In 2002, Silman was jailed for cocaine trafficking and rape. He got out in 2007 and in 2009 was convicted of amphetamines charges, receiving a three-month suspended sentence.

Judge Howard upheld the sentence of six months' jail, suspended for two years, handed out by the Magistrates Court for the latest set of charges. He said Silman should consider reducing the stress of his high-powered job, saying: ''Cut it down a little.''

Johns said Silman's responsibilities include ''dealing with tens of millions of dollars '' while working with his father on the family share portfolio, running a corporate services business, working on the family's Murray cod farm - ''the biggest in the southern hemisphere'' - and sitting on the board of Albury-based distiller Kiss Vodka.