But, surprisingly, Luke Wouter Dendulk’s bizarre choice of escape vehicle was not the worst decision he made on the evening of Friday, October 10 last year.

That title goes to Dendulk’s choice to abandon his car in the middle of Cliff Road, run into the surf off North Beach and begin swimming out to sea, quickly disappearing from view.

His antics sparked a frantic, multi-agency search that continued well into Saturday morning until he was eventually found, safe and well, at his girlfriend’s home in Fairy Meadow on Saturday afternoon.

In Port Kembla Court on Tuesday, Dendulk’s lawyer said her client had been high on ice at the time and had swum ‘‘for 10 hours’’, exiting the water near the golf course.

‘‘He accepts there was significant public resources used [to search for him],’’ the lawyer said, noting Dendulk had written a letter of apology to the court for his actions.

‘‘His behaviour was impulsive, irrational and foolish, which is consistent with his drug usage around that time.’’

The court heard police initially tried to pull Dendulk over on Corrimal Street after discovering the Tarago was unregistered, however Dendulk refused to stop, driving into the driveway of a unit block then through its car park in a bid to get away.

Police followed the car to Cliff Road where Dendulk made his great escape into the ocean near the Continental Pool.

‘‘Police maintained observations of the accused for as long as they possibly could, however a heavy mist set in, and he could no longer be sighted,’’ police documents said.

An extensive air and sea search was launched immediately but failed to locate Dendulk, but did find his shoes near the pool and his wallet in the abandoned car.

Dendulk was charged with multiple offences following his arrest the next day, despite initially denying he’d been involved.

He pleaded guilty to six charges stemming from the incident, as well as two charges relating to a separate incident a month earlier involving a high speed motorbike pursuit with police around Wollongong.

During an earlier court appearance, Magistrate Mark Douglass asked for Dendulk to be assessed for suitability for an intensive correction order (ICO), which would allow him to avoid jail and serve his sentence in the community on restricted liberty.

In court on Tuesday, Magistrate Susan McGowan reluctantly imposed an 18-month ICO on the back of a favourable assessment, saying if she’d dealt with Dendulk’s case from the beginning she would have jailed him.

‘‘Let it be known Magistrate Douglass made the order for an ICO assessment, I didn’t,’’ she said.

‘‘I wouldn’t have made it.’’

Dendulk was also fined a combined $1150 on some of the more minor charges and disqualified from driving for seven years.