Estranged lover Daniel Ryan Andrew Luks sentenced for stalking ex-girlfriend with GPS tracking device

A man from Perth’s south who stalked his former lover after placing a GPS tracker on her vehicle has avoided jail. But Daniel Ryan Andrew Luks, 30, was also refused a spent conviction by a magistrate when he appeared at Rockingham Magistrates Court on Wednesday, June 7, for sentencing on charges of aggravated stalking and unlawful use of a tracking device. The court was told that Luks had a tracking device installed on his former partner’s vehicle after their 17-month relationship ended in 2022, and then used it to follow his ex to numerous locations across Baldivis, Mandurah and Wembley over a two-week period. After sighting Luks on several occasions, she eventually sought a restraining order. It wasn’t until her brother searched her vehicle that the GPS tracker was uncovered, with police eventually tracing the SIM card back to Luks. Luks’ lawyer Trent Petherick told the court on Wednesday that Luks’ “whole future” relied on the spent conviction decision, concerned the conviction could affect his future job prospects and hopes to get into investment banking in America after he finishes studying. But Magistrate Linda Keane refused, saying his behaviour and the impact that stalking has in the community was “too serious” — so serious that police prosecutors argued that Luks’ offences warranted actual jail time. Ms Keane, who imposed an 18-month suspended sentence, said a psychological report revealed that Luks “blamed others” and there was a strong focus “on him being a victim of his own behaviour”. “He is not getting a spent conviction order after stalking a woman on six occasions over two weeks,” she said. Ms Keane said that she understood that Luks was having a difficult time over the relationship ending and had some mental health struggles, but that he was “old enough to know better”. “I don’t have a victim impact statement before me but let’s just take a second to think about how she might have been feeling and how this has all affected her,” she said during sentencing. “You followed her in circumstances where you made you made yourself visible to her, she saw you and I accept beyond reasonable doubt that scared her, worried her and concerned her enough to show up to court to apply for a restraining order. “Imagine the psychological trauma this would have on another person. “She was followed miles from her home to the Wembley Golf Course and to the home of her partner’s house, what was the point of all of that other than to show her that you had seen her. “You are a stalker and you were stopped, you didn’t stop yourself.” In addition to the forensic psychological report produced for the court, Mr Petherick obtained a separate report from a leading expert in stalking, Curtin University Adjunct Associate Professor Lorraine Sheridan, which he said found Luks to be at a “low risk level of offending if treatment continues”. Ms Keane said there were discrepancies between the reports and that Luks had not disclosed to the treating psychologist that he had also been served a restraining order over a different past relationship. And she said that the psychological reports were extremely negative. “You were victim blaming and suggesting that you were a victim of these women,” she continued. “You have used your mental health as an attempt to exaggerate your problems for sympathy. “She wanted you to stay away from her and you didn’t. “This may impact her having healthy relationships and safe relationships.” 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)