Man who bugged cheating partner’s vehicle sentenced for domestic violence
A WOMAN’S advocacy group has applauded a court’s hard line sentence of a first time domestic violence offender who bugged his de facto’s car after she cheated on him with a work colleague.
Central Coast
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A WOMAN’S advocacy group has applauded a court’s hard line sentence of a first time domestic violence offender who bugged his de facto’s car after she cuckolded him with a work colleague.
George Geoffrey Hicks, of Terrigal, was fined $1500, put on a good behaviour bond for two years, an apprehended violence order (AVO) for five years and given a 12-month suspended jail sentence after a magistrate found his domestic violence was “at the higher end of offending” despite not laying a finger on his de facto of 17 years.
“This level of conduct is unacceptable,” Magistrate Alex Mijovich admonished him.
“The level of attempted controlling behaviour is one of the worst I have ever seen. You don’t have the right to behave in this fashion.”
The 61-year-old pleaded guilty in Gosford Local Court last week to three counts of stalking and intimidating his ex-partner last year.
A set of agreed facts, tendered in court, revealed the general manager of a high end Central Coast car dealership put a listening device in his ex-partner’s car.
A fourth charge of detaining her to obtain advantage, after he took her for a 40-minute drive in which he played some of a conversation she had with a friend earlier in her car and refused to stop and let her out, was withdrawn.
Hicks’ solicitor Bobby Locker told the court the automotive executive had never come before a court before, felt ashamed and his actions were completely out of character.
He said Hicks’ offending was sparked when his ex-partner had an affair and he felt betrayed because he had helped raise two of her children during their 17-year relationship.
Police facts revealed Hicks monitored her phone through her iCloud and planted a listening device under the dashboard of her car near the steering wheel.
Hicks would then mention things during arguments with her, which he could not possibly have known otherwise.
From May until August 2017 when his ex-partner eventually went to police, Hicks threatened her that he had “thought of a million ways to kill you”, called her a “liar, manipulator and a c … of a thing” and threatened to “ruin both” her and her colleague.
“You’re not going to sleep well next week either because I’ve emailed everyone at your work to tell them about your affair, I’m going to destroy you by the end of August,” he threatened her.
He was eventually arrested and during a recorded interview with police he said got the listening device from his work.
“We sell them at my work, we put them in our cars,” he said.
He was not charged over the listening device but the magistrate cautioned he could have been facing a five-year jail term for that type of offence and increased the one-year AVO sought by the police prosecutor to five years because he should have “no reason” to ever contact the victim again.
A spokeswoman for female advocacy group Zonta International Australia said it sent a strong warning to other men that they do not have to physically assault a woman to face the full extent of the law.
“The police are getting on to these things much more quickly,” she said.
“The law is working very hard.”