{"id":885708,"date":"2026-09-09T13:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885708\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:32:10","slug":"how-one-womans-tesla-was-remotely-controlled-and-used-to-harass-her-by-an-abusive-ex-partner-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885708\/","title":{"rendered":"How one woman\u2019s Tesla was remotely controlled \u2013 and used to harass her \u2013 by an abusive ex-partner | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost a year ago, Stacey* heard her Tesla<\/a> car alarm sound on three occasions in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

By that point, the Sydney<\/a> woman had suffered four years of domestic abuse by her former partner and disgraced businessman, Enrico Pucci. When the alarm sounded, she was \u201ctoo scared\u201d to go outside because she thought he may be damaging her vehicle, according to police documents tendered in court.<\/p>\n

The next morning, the car appeared undamaged, but Stacey noticed its electronic dashboard had been reset and a \u201cparental control\u201d profile had been added.<\/p>\n

Three days later, Pucci, now 50, followed her in a car and started to yell at her about a man she was dating.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou thought you\u2019d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps,\u201d he shouted at her, according to the police records.<\/p>\n

Over the coming days, Stacey found that the parental control profile, to which she had no access, could almost entirely control the car, including its speed, climate control, lock and curfew hours, determining when the car could be driven.<\/p>\n

Between 6 and 12 November 2025, Pucci remotely alternated the car\u2019s temperature setting between extremely cold and extremely hot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victim has not been able to drive certain speeds and on most recent occasions throughout this period, [the accused] has turned on \u2018Valet Mode\u2019 which immediately reduces the speed to 40km per hour causing significant safety issues for the victim on the road\u201d, the police documents stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victim has not had any control of her vehicle since she noticed the parental control profile added on the 1st November 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accused has been the only one with access to the vehicle\u2019s controls utilising the Tesla app. This has caused the victim significant stress, mental harm and fears for her physical safety when operating her own vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, Pucci was convicted of 30 domestic violence related charges against Stacey, including using the Tesla car app to harass her.<\/p>\n

Judge Peter Feather sentenced him to two years and three months before Parramatta local court in western Sydney, with a non-parole period of 15 months, after he pleaded guilty to the charges the week before a hearing scheduled in August.<\/p>\n

During his sentencing remarks, Feather said Pucci had engaged in \u201cabusive behaviour\u201d towards his former partner over the course of four years. This included \u201cmultiple methods to dominate\u201d the woman, including using the Tesla app to control her car, and forging fraudulent employment opportunities to \u201ccreate dependency\u201d while \u201calso forcing her to pass up other opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen viewed cumulatively, [it] amounts to conduct that\u2019s both coercive and controlling in nature, reflecting a pattern of behaviour designed to entrench power and compliance,\u201d Feather said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Everything went quiet\u2019<\/p>\n

The police documents detailed years of abuse. In an incident which led to a conviction of common assault, Stacey in March 2020 told Pucci she wished to separate while they were in the car with the victim\u2019s two-year-old son.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accused threatened that would be the last time the victim sees her son if she ended the relationship,\u201d the documents said. \u201cThe accused forcibly took her phone and typed a message to the victim\u2019s ex husband stating that she could not care for her son and wished to give him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe accused forcibly removed the victim from her car and dragged her to a nearby pillar, pinned her against it and said \u2018say goodbye to your son\u2019. The accused drove off with the victim\u2019s child, leaving the victim without a phone or a car.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the documents, Pucci returned a few minutes later, then grabbed Stacey\u2019s arm and said, \u201cI hope you comprehend what will happen to you if you break up again\u201d.<\/p>\n

Separately, in 2021, after they were married, Pucci strangled Stacey to the point she recalled hearing gurgling noises and \u201cfighting\u201d for her life, the documents stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything went quiet, and the victim blacked out,\u201d the documents read.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victim believed she was going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stacey bought a Tesla car while they were still a couple, the documents said. <\/p>\n

After having trouble navigating the technology, Stacey was offered help from Pucci, who said he would need the car to be registered in his name so \u201che could take control of the Tesla app to \u2018assist her\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe victim agreed, solely for the purpose of assistance with the vehicle technology,\u201d the documents said.<\/p>\n

In November 2025, a month after the relationship had ended, Pucci used Stacey\u2019s Tesla car app to harass her, which fell under a charge of using a carriage service to stalk or harass.<\/p>\n

This included seven attempts by Pucci to disconnect her car from its charging port via the Tesla app.<\/p>\n

History of abuse<\/p>\n

Pucci is appealing against his sentence for the 30 offences and is scheduled to face court again in late October.<\/p>\n

The offences include eight counts of stalking or intimidation with the intention to cause fear or physical harm, six counts of common assault, two counts of choking a person without consent, one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill and one count of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.<\/p>\n

In 2017, the federal court found that a Sydney cleaning firm owned by Pucci had treated some vulnerable foreign workers as \u201cslaves\u201d after refusing to pay them for months and leaving them to go without furniture, food and critical medical treatment.<\/p>\n

The fair work ombudsman secured a penalty of nearly $450,000<\/a> in the federal court against Grouped Property Services (GPS) Pty Ltd. Pucci, the company\u2019s current owner and sole director, was fined $3,000 for firing a woman when she asked why she had not been paid.<\/p>\n

His brother, Rosario Pucci, the former owner-operator of the company, was described by the federal court as being \u201cintimately involved\u201d in the exploitation<\/a> and fined a further $74,300.<\/p>\n

In 2022, ASIC disqualified Enrico Pucci from managing corporations for the maximum period of five years due to his \u201cinvolvement in the failure of three companies\u201d, which owed almost $10m to creditors.<\/p>\n

*Name has been changed for privacy reasons.<\/p>\n

In Australia, domestic and family violence counselling is available from Full Stop Australia on 1800 385 578. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women\u2019s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost a year ago, Stacey* heard her Tesla car alarm sound on three occasions in the middle of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-885708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}