Grand final border breacher’s bold business move

Grand final border breacher and bar owner Hayden Burbank has made a bold business decision amid a probe into his suitability to hold a liquor licence.

Morris Jones owner Hayden Burbank dresses up closed bar in Demons colours ahead of the grand final. Picture: Instagram

Grand final border breacher Hayden Burbank is no longer a director of the company that runs his Windsor bar Morris Jones & Co.

Burbank is cooling his heels in jail in Perth after he and his financial planner mate, Mark Babbage, each pleaded guilty in October to three charges of breaching Western Australia’s Covid laws and one charge of fraud stemming from their foolhardy decision to attend the AFL Grand Final in Perth in September.

They were sentenced to 10 months in jail with seven months suspended.

Hayden Burbank (left) celebrating with the Dees after their grand final win in Perth. Picture: Instagram

The impact of his run in with the law on his hospitality business has been quite the talking point.

According to company records, Burbank, 49, resigned as a director of Bambou Restaurant Pty Ltd which operates the Morris Jones business on November 20.

His mother, Antoinette Burbank, 71, was appointed as a director and secretary of the Bambou company on November 1. She is now the sole director of the company.

Last month the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation confirmed it was looking into Burbank’s suitability to hold a liquor licence in Victoria.

Bambou Restaurant Pty Ltd holds the liquor licence for Morris Jones.

Burbank and Babbage’s grand final woes still have another chapter to play out.

They have a court date in February in Darwin where they are accused of forging identity documents and flouting the NT’s Covid directions during an outbreak.