Fugitive hid on S.I. for a year

AN ACCUSED Florida pill peddler spent more than a year in hiding working at Staten Island body shops — even as one of his brothers languished in a prison cell for his role in the same drug ring.

Cops on Tuesday caught up with Michael Banasky, 40, in his boss’ locked office in an auto body shop on Granite Ave. in Mariners Harbor, sources said. Members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, which includes U.S. marshals and NYPD investigators, arrested him.

Banasky, his brothers Thomas and Theodore and 15 others were busted in 2010 for their roles in an oxycodone trafficking ring, at the height of the state’s “pill mill” epidemic, when loose regulations allowed pain management clinics to churn out massive amounts of opioid prescriptions.

For more than a year, Michael Banasky gave false information to doctors so he could get nearly 10,000 doses of the powerful painkiller, according to police in Temple Terrace, Fla. Banasky (photo inset) and his brother Thomas, 38, were scheduled to go on trial in April 2015, but Michael cut his ankle bracelet, skipped bail and vanished just before the proceedings began, said Mark Cox, a spokesman for the Hillsborough County, Fla., state attorney’s office.

Thomas Banasky went to trial and was sentenced in May 2015 to 25 years in prison. Prosecutors didn’t pursue criminal charges against his brother Theodore.

Michael Banasky was arraigned Tuesday as a fugitive from justice, and is due back in Manhattan Criminal Court on Dec. 13.

In a troubling twist, police in Staten Island’s 120th Precinct caught Banasky buying methadone pills outside an auto body shop on Wave St. in Stapleton on Aug. 2. Even though they had his correct name, they didn’t realize he was wanted in Florida. Police issued him a desk appearance ticket and cut him loose. Banasky pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug possession, and got a conditional discharge.

Police did not disclose why cops didn’t immediately link Banasky to the fugitive warrant.

After his capture, Banasky told police he fled Florida in part as a legal strategy, so he wouldn’t be tried alongside his brother, police sources said.

He even stole a man’s ID from a pharmacy counter in Brooklyn, dyeing his gray beard black to look more like the man.

He worked at a few auto body shops, and though he was addicted to heroin, he was skilled at his job, sources said.

“He’s very good at it,” one police source said. “They all praised him.”