Accomplice who helped steal Nick Kyrgios's Tesla handed jail sentence

The man who helped a robber steal Nick Kyrgios’ lime-green Tesla has also been handed a jail sentence over the pair’s planned and premeditated crime.

The Tesla’s robber, who cannot be named for legal reasons, stole the vehicle from Nick’s mother, Norlaila Kyrgios, in 2023 after threatening her at gunpoint.

Last year, the 33-year-old was handed four-and-a-half years’ jail and is eligible to be released from custody in March 2026.

Then on Friday (14 March), his accomplice, the now-40-year-old Tyler Heycox, was also sentenced to four-and-a-half years’ jail by the ACT Supreme Court.

He had only been released on parole in NSW seven months earlier when he met up with the robber in April 2023.

The pair spent 30 minutes talking about the robbery they would conduct the next day, Acting Justice John Burns said.

On 1 May, 2023, Heycox picked the robber up in a silver BMW and drove him to a house in Canberra.

The robber had a long-barrelled gun and wore a mask when he knocked on the front door. He said, “It’s Chris” when Norlaila called out to ask who it was.

When she started to open the door, he forced the rest of it open with the gun and demanded the keys to her son’s lime-green Tesla, which was parked nearby.

He pointed the weapon at Norlaila and told her to show him how to drive the car, which had been bought for $125,000.

She was escorted outside at gunpoint, but when the robber got into the Tesla and no longer had the gun trained on her, she ran and screamed for help.

While the robber took off in the vehicle, Nick, who had been inside the home and heard his mother’s screams, called triple zero and used the Tesla app on his phone to track his car and lower its speed limit.

Police found the Tesla parked in a street with the robber in the driver’s seat and Heycox in the BMW on the other side of the road. The latter had just been given the gun, which he hid.

The robber then sped away from police and led them on a car chase. During the chase, Nick monitored his car’s movements and helped police track it before officers blocked its path in Ainslie and pulled the robber from the vehicle.

The thief told police he’d given the gun to the person in the BMW and police later arrested Heycox as he was walking to the car.

Heycox pleaded guilty to a charge of aiding and abetting an aggravated robbery.

During his sentencing hearing earlier this month, his lawyer told the court he had been driven by a “fear of the co-offender”.

Acting Justice Burns said there was “no doubt” the robber had a greater role in the theft, but the offence involved “significant planning and premeditation” and Heycox’s involvement had been an integral part of the crime.

Heycox started using methamphetamine when he was 28 and this escalated into daily use.

Acting Justice Burns said he had a lengthy criminal history that demonstrated he was “a confirmed criminal” and thought his prospects of rehabilitation were poor.

A warrant from NSW had been issued for his arrest as his parole had been revoked for a sentence in that state, for which he still had two years and three months left to serve.

The father-of-two lived between the ACT and Braidwood in NSW before he recently went into custody and he had mostly been a recipient of Centrelink benefits when in the community.

Heycox, who was in custody when he was sentenced, was handed a non-parole period of two years and three months’ jail ending in January 2026.

He will then be taken to NSW to continue serving the sentence he had been given in that state.

Region is legally unable to name the robber as he was a juvenile when he killed Clea Kathleen Rose.

On 30 July, 2005, the then-14-year-old was driving a stolen car when he struck Ms Rose in Mort Street at Civic during a police chase.

The 21-year-old university student died from her injuries about 20 days later.

Her killer was arrested and went on to serve time in prison over her death on a charge of culpable driving causing death.