Sandy Galicki has sentence for e-bike ‘chop shop’ reduced on appeal

A Corio man will spend Christmas behind bars, despite having his sentence for running an apparent “chop shop” for stolen e-scooters cut in half.

Sandy Galicki arrives at Geelong Law Courts earlier this year.

A Corio man busted with a house full of stolen scooters and e-bikes will spend Christmas behind bars, despite a judge slashing his sentence in half.

Sandy Galicki, 40, appeared in the County Court at Geelong on Thursday to appeal a sentence imposed in the Magistrates Court in May.

Galicki, who appeared in court supported by his partner, pleaded guilty to a raft of dishonesty offences including multiple counts of handling stolen goods.

Police tracked several Neuron scooters stolen in Melbourne’s CBD to Galicki’s Corio home in August last year.

Police described the residence as a “chop shop” with parts for multiple Neuron and Lime branded electric scooters and bikes found, along with drugs and prescription medication.

After pleading guilty, Galicki was sentenced to six months jail.

On Thursday, his lawyer, Michael Brugman, argued a jail sentence was not the answer.

“Here is a man in my submission, was socially isolated, cognitively impaired, (who) rarely went outside his house,” Mr Brugman said.

Mr Brugman asked Judge Gerard Mullaly to instead impose a community corrections order (CCO), which he said would help “break the cycle” of Galicki’s regular stints behind bars.

The court heard Galicki had frequently been in and out of prison since October 2013 for various offences, including many prior convictions for handling stolen goods.

Mr Brugman told the court Galicki also contributed to the care of his father, who was in assisted living in the McKellar Centre.

Mr Brugman argued that Galicki was not operating a business, but just liked fixing things and “had a skill” – pointing out there were other items in the house not subject to charges, such as hard-drives, laptop parts, speakers and car batteries.

Judge Mullaly noted that even if he was repairing them for friends, “they were stolen from Melbourne”.

Mr Brugman’s submission was supported by documents including a report of Galicki’s progress while on supported bail and a psychological report.

The bail report noted that Galicki had not missed an appointment and was “keen to make the most of every opportunity afforded through the program”.

Mr Brugman told the court the magistrate who sentenced Galicki would not have had access to either report.

The psychological report found Galicki’s drug use significantly impaired his mental functioning, which Judge Mullaly said was a “generous explanation”.

But he stressed Galicki “needs to put drugs behind him” if he wanted to live a quiet life.

In coming to his ruling, Judge Mullaly said he didn’t think a CCO was appropriate, as it would “dilute” some sentencing considerations.

However, he said following Mr Brugman’s submissions he felt six months “maybe is too long”.

“With a degree of mercy, a shorter, sharper sentence … is something that might get you to stick with your commitments,” Judge Mullaly said.

He set aside the Magistates’ Court order and imposed an aggregate sentence of three months.

As Galicki was granted appeal bail on the day of his sentence, no time served was recorded.

Originally published as Sandy Galicki has sentence for e-bike ‘chop shop’ reduced on appeal