A man accused of stealing a car and abducting a baby in Adelaide's north-east has only been released from prison months earlier and had an extensive criminal history, a court has heard.
Ilias Sammy Latsis, 37, has been charged with multiple offences, including serious criminal trespass, vehicle theft, deception and abduction.
Mr Latsis allegedly stole a Honda Jazz which had a four-month-old boy inside from outside a deli on Fourth Avenue at Klemzig in May.
The incident sparked an urgent and widespread manhunt, and the baby boy was reunited with his mother two hours later when the car was found abandoned in Enfield.
Despite previously admitting to abducting the child, Mr Latsis' lawyer Heidi Salvemini said the abduction was "disputed".
During a bail application in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday, she said negotiations were underway with regards to the other charges.
"Unless prosecution provide us with information and disclose to us how they intend to prove the conduct was conscious and voluntary, it's likely the charge itself will not be able to be proven because that's an essential element of the offence," Ms Salvemini told the court.
Magistrate Alfio Grasso refused Mr Latsis bail to live with his sister due to the seriousness of the alleged offences and his "inability to comply" in the past.
Prosecutor Phoebe Foster-Richardson told the court Mr Latsis had a "disregard for court orders" and had a long criminal history, mostly due to his methamphetamine addiction.
"In the last 10 years he's received a total of six bonds from court, mostly suspended sentence bonds, in relation to offending of the same nature," Ms Foster-Richardson told the court.
"He's breached those six bonds.
"He's served 10 sentences of imprisonment for the same offending or [offending of a] very like nature.
"His offending is a cycle of being released from prison, reoffending."
Latsis has 'good family support'
Ms Foster-Richardson told the court Mr Latsis was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail for 15 offences in February 2020.
The court heard he was released on parole in July 2020, but a warrant was issued that same month after Mr Latsis failed to comply with his parole conditions.
He returned to custody and was released in December 2021.
But Mr Latsis' lawyer Ms Salvemini told the court granting Mr Latsis bail would be a "significant step forward" for him as he had good family support.
She told the court his prior breaches of bail were due to him being in a "toxic relationship" at the time and needing to escape Adelaide "for breaks" and "failed to attend multiple times at the Department for Correctional Services".
"The defendant accepts he has failed a couple of drug tests in the past … and he has had a long-standing addiction to methamphetamine," she told the court.
"The defendant has been in custody already for four months and five days.
"He also has a limited ability to rehabilitate while he's in a custodial setting."
She said Mr Latsis also breached his home detention bail on one occasion because he stepped outside the boundary of his bail address to say goodbye to family members who were staying with him.
The case returns to court in December.
Mr Latsis pleaded guilty to abduction at his first court appearance but has since indicated an intention to change his plea.
The court has previously heard Mr Latsis has been verbally targeted in prison as the case had "attracted a lot of attention".
