Court grants Ironside accused Matthew William Collins permission to attend own wedding

An Operation Ironside accused has been forced to plead with a court for permission to go to his own wedding after his home-detention officer declared it “not essential”.

An Operation Ironside accused subject to strict bail conditions was forced to seek a court’s permission to attend his own wedding, after his home-detention officer said it was “not essential”.

Matthew Collins, 43, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court alongside three others on Thursday, charged over a large drug lab found at Morphett Vale last year.

Ironside accused Matthew Collins outside Adelaide Magistrates court.

The court has previously heard Collins, of Happy Valley, was alleged to have been “the cook” at the drug lab, and has pleaded guilty to a charge of manufacturing a commercial quantity of a controlled drug.

Stacey Carter, for Collins, asked the court to vary her client’s home-detention bail conditions to allow him to leave home for seven hours to attend his wedding next month.

“He applied to his home-detention officer for permission to get married on Sunday, 14 November … home detention explained that is not considered an essential pass out to attend at his own wedding,” Ms Carter said.

She said Collins was seeking permission to leave his home at noon to travel directly to the wedding ceremony at Belair by 1pm. She said the celebrations were expected to finish about 6pm and he would return home by 7pm.

“It is not an extensive application. He is simply asking to marry his fiancee and he’s asking for a pass-out of seven hours,” Ms Carter said.

“He will keep his electronic monitoring tracking device on at all times and comply with all other conditions.”

A prosecutor initially opposed the application but, after a short adjournment, consented to the variation, which Magistrate Michelle Sutcliffe subsequently granted.

The prosecutor asked the case against Collins and his co-accused be adjourned because secretly monitored AN0M communications involving Collins and co-accused Angus James Spurling, 23, of Lockleys, needed analysing.

He said there was a “very large volume of messages” on the AN0M platform linked to the drug lab and the matter was to be joined with a further four men charged over the lab – including the youngest Operation Ironside accused Apostle Broikos.

The prosecutor asked the case be adjourned to February but Ms Sutcliffe ordered they return to court in November.