Aleksander Miceski: Man spared jail after ‘no knowledge’ of violent car theft

An Illawarra man who was “along for the ride” in a stolen vehicle has avoided being sent to jail. Read what happened in court.

A Mount Saint Thomas man who didn‘t want to “look like a pussy” has been spared a prison sentence in Wollongong District Court.

Aleksander Miceski, 29, had previously been charged with armed robbery and other violent offences relating to an incident outside an apartment block in the Illawarra in September last year.

However, he was found to have “only been along for the ride” with Judge Andrew Haesler convicting him of being an accessory after the fact to the offence of take and drive a conveyance and placing him on a 12-month community corrections order.

The incident occurred around 10pm on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, when Miceski was tagging along with a co-accused, who is still before the courts.

The co-accused allegedly confronted a man in a Mercedes-Benz outside the Mangerton apartment block after he‘d been involved in a dodgy drug deal.

Aleksander Miceski outside Wollongong Courthouse on Tuesday. Picture: Dylan Arvela

During this incident, the co-accused allegedly pulled a knife on the victim and scared him out of the car.

Miceski wasn’t in the vehicle until the victim fled and then the co-accused told him to get in and drove off with the car.

“I‘m that stupid,” Miceski told police after he was arrested two months later.

“I‘m thinking no way is he going to steal the car. He’s going to give the car back to him, he’s going to return it.”

Miceski told police the co-accused had said “Bro you should be fine because you’ve got nothing to do with it. You were just along for the ride”.

Miceski, who has a brain injury sustained after being hit by a car as a child, informed police he didn’t have much to do with the co-accused who he said could “be scary sometimes” and that he only was at the incident because he ”didn’t want to look like a pussy”.

Judge Andrew Haesler handed down his sentence in Wollongong District Court on Tuesday.

“He is one of the older boys from Coniston that I get along with,” Miceski said.

“I just bump into him every now and again. I didn’t hang with him too much.

“And when I bump into him, I’d hang out with him for a little bit and that was it. I didn’t even hang out with him too much.”

In court on Tuesday, Judge Haesler said he accepted Miceski had “no knowledge” of the co-accused’s “intent to steal the vehicle or use a knife”.

The judge also said Miceski had been punished enough via four months in custody while on remand and said it was “best to focus on his rehabilitation” from using drugs.

The CCO will expire in August next year.