A man who stabbed his drunk and angry housemate after turning his own knife against him has been jailed for three years.
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Hardeep Singh banged on Yong Choy Chee's door and started a fight about visa money at a Springvale boarding house in November 2016.
Mr Singh, then 29 and more than three times over the legal driving limit in terms of alcohol, dropped the knife after Chee, 35, tried to slam his door shut.
The older man then stabbed his housemate's head and upper body repeatedly, cutting an artery.
Chee admitted recklessly causing Mr Singh serious injury. But their accounts differed as to who had the knife first and were contested at Victoria's Supreme Court.
Justice Lex Lasry on Wednesday said he accepted Chee's evidence and found Mr Singh's version of events, in which he was initially attacked, unreliable.
"What occurred was spontaneous and you were acting in response to the original threat," Justice Lasry told Chee, whom he sentenced to three years in prison without a non-parole period being set.
"You didn't provoke the confrontation and didn't introduce the knife. But you overreacted."
Both men came from Malaysia to Australia on tourist visas, but they expired and the duo remained in the country working illegally as plasterers.
They argued over roughly $400 Mr Singh had given to a cousin of Chee to obtain another visa.
The court previously heard Mr Singh ran from the house and then back inside, screaming for help because he thought he was going to die.
He needed a blood transfusion, surgery and was in intensive care for six days.
At one point, he had no pulse but was revived.
Chee fled before police arrived, leaving a blood trail. The kitchen was also covered in blood.
He moved interstate, stopped accessing his bank accounts, changed his phone number and registered a new one in a false name.
He was arrested in NSW in February 2019 when police who stopped him about a ticketing offence realised he was wanted in Victoria.
Chee said he was sleeping when Mr Singh drunkenly and aggressively banged on his door.
"He was holding a knife wanting to chop me. I was very fearful," Chee told the court through an interpreter.
Mr Singh said he was upset about the visa, and that he told Chee he wanted either the money back or the papers or he would go to the police.
Chee, who has served 867 days in custody, will be deported to Malaysia after completing his three-year sentence.
Australian Associated Press
