A Sydney businessman has been sentenced to more than two years in prison for a four-year campaign of domestic abuse against his former wife that included using a Tesla smartphone app to control her car’s speed, temperature and locks.
The Guardian reports that Enrico Pucci, 50, was convicted last week of 30 domestic violence related charges against his ex-wife, who the court uses the psuedonym “. Judge Peter Feather sentenced Pucci at Parramatta local court in western Sydney to two years and three months in prison, with a non-parole period of 15 months. Pucci had pleaded guilty to the charges the week before a hearing scheduled for August, and he is now appealing the sentence, with another court date set for late October.
Almost a year ago, Stacey heard her Tesla’s alarm sound three times in a single night. She was too scared to go outside. The next morning the car looked undamaged, but its electronic dashboard had been reset and a “parental control” profile had been added, one she had no access to. Three days later, Pucci followed her in a car and yelled at her about a man she was dating, telling her, according to police records, “You thought you’d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps.”
The parental control profile gave whoever controlled it power over the car’s speed, climate control, locks and curfew hours. Stacey had bought the Tesla while the two were still together, but the vehicle was registered in Pucci’s name so that he could, as he put it, “take control of the Tesla app to ‘assist her’” with the technology.
Court documents show that beginning November 1, 2025, Stacey lost all control of her own vehicle. “The victim has not had any control of her vehicle since she noticed the parental control profile added on the 1st November 2025,” police documents tendered in court stated.
Between November 6 and 12, 2025, a month after the relationship ended, Pucci allegedly used the app to swing the car’s temperature between extremely cold and extremely hot, and repeatedly switched on “Valet Mode” to cut its speed to 25 mph. “The victim has not been able to drive certain speeds and on most recent occasions throughout this period, [the accused] has turned on ‘Valet Mode’ which immediately reduces the speed to 40km per hour causing significant safety issues for the victim on the road,” the documents said.
He also made seven attempts to disconnect her car from its charging port through the app, conduct charged as using a carriage service to stalk or harass. Police documents noted that “the accused has been the only one with access to the vehicle’s 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.”
The 30 offenses included eight counts of stalking or intimidation with intent to cause fear or physical harm, six counts of common assault, two counts of choking 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. In sentencing, Judge Feather said Pucci had engaged in “abusive behaviour” over four years, using “multiple methods to dominate” Stacey, including the Tesla app and forged, fraudulent employment opportunities designed to “create dependency.”
Read more at the Guardian here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.