Defendant rages, appears to throw cup in court when refused bail

A man charged over his alleged connection to a stolen car ranted about the case before appearing to launch a cup into the air when he was refused bail.

Aubrey James Agostino appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court over audio-visual link on Wednesday (23 August) where he was charged with riding in a car without consent and possessing stolen property.

The 33-year-old Latham resident began ranting when Special Magistrate Rebecca Christensen refused him bail, making comments like, “Where’s the video footage? Show me the video footage”.

“I was at home all the f-ing time,” he said.

“I wanna see all this stuff.

“I wanna see what is putting me back in jail.”

He then grabbed a cup in front of him and appeared to throw it into the air before custody officers took hold of him.

The audio-visual link was then turned off.

Afterwards, Special Magistrate Christensen told the lawyers “he makes a fair point” about the video and asked the prosecutor to make sure the footage was made available to Agostino’s legal team.

A woman had been walking her dogs after midnight in Moncrieff on Tuesday (22 August) when she heard loud banging noises coming from near a home before a Mercedes-Benz SUV reversed out of a garage and crashed into another car before driving off, court documents claim.

Shortly afterwards, the SUV’s owner reported his car had been stolen.

At about 7 am that same morning, a resident in Coombs heard a loud noise outside his home and saw two men standing around the SUV.

He thought they were acting suspiciously, so filmed them on his mobile phone before calling police.

The men had driven off in the car by the time police arrived about 20 minutes later, but the resident showed them the videos he had taken and the officers claimed to recognise Agostino as one of them. He was arrested later that day.

He applied for bail in court, which was opposed by the prosecutor based on the likelihood of him reoffending and endangering the safety and welfare of anyone.

The father-of-two’s duty lawyer said he had recently taken steps to join a rehabilitation program to address his substance use.

Special Magistrate Christensen ultimately said she was satisfied there were risks if he was released on bail and refused it, remanding him in custody and adjourning the matter to 5 September.