‘Significant property damage’ Inside alleged drug-fuelled rampage at tennis club
Days after the owner gave him food and shelter, a homeless man is alleged to have caused extensive damage to a tennis club in a drug-fuelled rampage. Find out what happened.
Police & Courts
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A man has allegedly caused significant damage to a Southport tennis club in a drug-fuelled rampage on Friday morning.
A 29-year-old Stafford man was arrested and charged after police were called to the Queens Park Tennis Club at 5.15am.
The man has been charged with eight offences including five charges of lawful damage, one charge of stealing, one charge of possessing dangerous drugs offence to buy or possess medicines or hazardous poisons.
A Queensland Police Service spokesman said the man was taken to Gold Coast University Hospital for a health check after being arrested.
“A male was reported to be causing a disturbance at that location … upon arrival police observed a significant amount of property damage and that he was under the influence of it’s believed to be drugs,” he said.
“He’s alleged to be homeless and under the influence of drugs, but he was taken to the hospital just as a precaution.”
Queens Park Tennis Club owner John Birrell said his venue was left “a complete mess”.
“In the early hours of the morning, he came in to the side of the clubhouse where the bathrooms are and set himself up,” he said.
“He’s got a shopping cart there with him with all his clothes and his belongings inside the shopping cart and he’s become very agitated
“He became so agitated that he started banging against the wall with his fists.
“He kicked our door in and smashed our glass, and he’s picked up at tables and chairs and knocked them over and made a real mess of pot plants and ripped up all our seats and tables … just made a complete mess.”
The man was allegedly seen around the tennis club in the days leading up to the incident.
“That was a really sad thing because he’d been hanging around for a couple of days and on Thursday morning he came into our tennis centre and he went to use our bathrooms,” Mr Birrell said
“We said to him, ‘It’s not a public facility and this is a private club. Can I help you?’ and he says, ‘I’m really hungry’ … I gave him some sandwiches and a drink.”
The man is due to appear in Southport Magistrates Court on August 24.
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