The Victorian parents in trouble with the law
From drug deals to crime sprees, these parents aren’t setting a good example. Meet 13 of Victoria’s bad parents.
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Parents are often our first role models as kids.
These dodgy parents haven’t been setting a very good example for their kids, getting in trouble with the law for everything from sexual assaults to fist fights.
Here are some of Victoria’s criminal parents.
Eric Lawson and daughter Lylley Lawson
A father and daughter duo terrorised an elderly Reservoir couple during a wild rampage across Melbourne’s northern suburbs that left a trail of destruction.
In the space of just one day Eric Lawson and daughter Lylley Lawson committed two car jackings, an armed burglary, trespass, theft, and assaulted police, all while being followed by the police air wing through Bundoora, Thomastown, Reservoir and Preston.
The father and daughter, Eric Lawson, aged 37, and Lylley Lawson, 20, terrorised an elderly couple by holding the man at knifepoint and stealing keys to their Mazda.
The court was told that Eric Lawson drove the elderly couple’s car, narrowly missing a police officer on the street outside the home, and then reversed into a police car which had to be towed away.
Eric Lawson dumped the Mazda in the Northland Shopping Centre underground car park and committed another carjacking by grabbing a 78-year-old man out of the driver’s seat of second Mazda vehicle and throwing him to the ground.
Eventually they crashed into a parked vehicle at Ascot Vale and police arrested the pair at the scene after a short scuffle.
A defence lawyer who represented Lylley Lawson said her client had believed she was going to attend a funeral with her father in Melbourne but instead became caught up in his crime spree.
Wayne Compt
A Greensborough father who went on a Kmart stealing spree in Melbourne’s north was nabbed by police after he failed to cover his tracks.
Wayne Compt pleaded guilty to multiple charges of obtaining property by deception and committing indictable offences while on bail at Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on March 30, after he stole $1160 from Kmart and Bunnings stores by fraudulently claiming refunds.
The court heard that Compt frequented Kmart stores in Preston and Greensborough, claiming refunds on more than 20 occasions by finding receipts on the ground or in the rubbish.
He did the same thing at Bunnings in Preston, where on three occasions he stole funds by falsely claiming refunds.
The court heard Compt had “a number of” children and his 20-year-old daughter came to court in support of her dad.
Beau Hewat
Father of two who is also the son of a notorious Hells Angel bikie with a taste for stealing trucks — including one packed with more than $200,000 Jack Daniels whiskey — has pleaded guilty to a host of brazen heists.
Beau Hewat, 33, whose father is Peter “Skitzo” Hewat, fronted Melbourne’s County Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to three charges of theft and two charges of recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime.
Between April 2020 and July 2021 Hewart pinched trucks full of alcohol and two Australia Post van full of parcels.
Buzzo was arrested at his warehouse following an investigation by Northwest Metro Crime Squad detectives into the commercial thefts of heavy haulage vehicles.
Matthew Pang
A Melbourne dad sexually assaulted a teenage girl while at a party with his partner and their child.
Matthew Pang, 31, was sentenced in the County Court to a minimum 16-month jail term after pleading guilty to a rolled-up sexual penetration of a child under 16 charge.
Pang assaulted his 15-year-old victim after encountering the young girl at a party in St Albans in early 2018.
The court heard Pang — who did not know the victim — approached the child after she consumed alcohol at the house party.
The victim drank to the point where she had to vomit in the toilet, the court was told.
She returned to the party but felt sick again so she went to lie down on a bed at the house.
Pang, who attended the party with his partner and child, entered the room where the victim was lying and lay next to her.
Pang then sexually assaulted the child.
Pang, who was made a registered sex offender for 15 years, was jailed for a maximum two years and six months.
Patrick Phyland
A father of two who was trying to break up a huge brawl at a Ringwood nightclub got irked by another clubber he saw laughing near the bar and punched him in the face.
Patrick Phyland, a 26-year-old carpenter, pleaded guilty to assault at the Ringwood Magistrates’ Court on January 13.
Phyland became involved in a brawl at Ringwood’s former Orange Whip nightclub, now known as Void, on May 1, 2021.
The court heard the brawl started in the club about 1.30am, spilt out onto the street, and then flared up again inside the club.
Phyland tried to pull mates away who had become involved in the scuffle.
He then noticed another person near the nightclub’s bar who he thought was laughing at the incident and punched him in the face, leaving the victim with a split lip.
She fined Phyland $800 with a conviction.
Katrina ‘Kat’ Casey
A drug-addicted mum juiced on GHB helped carry out a false imprisonment escapade where the victim was bundled in a car and driven to a house in Melbourne’s outer east.
Katrina ‘Kat’ Casey, 32, and her former roommate Kirsti Kelk assailed their victim late on March 11, 2021.
The then 27-year-old female victim had been at her ex-partner’s Malvern home with her kid when she received a phone call from a friend asking her for help.
The victim walked to a car and when she got in was driven a short distance where Kelk was waiting for her.
The court was told the victim attempted to open her door when she saw Kelk but couldn’t due to the child lock system being activated.
Kelk then entered the car along with Casey who sat in the back seat next to the victim.
It’s alleged the third co-accused drove the vehicle from the scene.
Kelk went onto assault the victim brutally multiple times.
The prosecution submitted Kelk played a “more serious” role in the offending but Casey made no moves to help the victim and didn’t call police after.
The court heard Casey, a mother of two, was “heavily” drug-affected at the time after taking “significant” amounts of GHB.
Sarah Ward
A Melbourne mum who stole more than $180,000 to live a social media driven fantasy will serve a stint in the slammer.
Sarah Ward, 31, was sentenced in the County Court to a 12-month jail term after pleading guilty to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception.
Ward, used her position as a receptionist at Noble Park medical business Melbourne Digestive Centre to lodge 1609 bogus Medicare claims between March 2019 and April 2020.
The mother’s skulduggery was detected following a “tip off” in May 2020.
Ward, who has repaid Medicare all the stolen cash, was jailed for two years but will be released onto a good behaviour bond after serving 12 months.
Dwayne O’Connell
A married Melbourne dad who asked a 14-year-old girl to have sex before planning a pick-up spot was also caught with pictures of naked children as young as four.
Berwick’s Dwayne O’Connell pleaded guilty in the County Court to using a carriage service to procure a person believed to be under 16 and possessing child abuse material.
The 32-year-old married father-of-two asked a girl he believed to be 14 if she wanted to have sex, organised a meet-up spot, and told her not to tell friends or family.
The pair discussed where they could meet up and they decided on Cranbourne’s Central Parkway playground.
But it was not a girl on the other end of the Snapchat messages, it was Victoria Police.
Police executed a search warrant at his Berwick address where they located four images of child abuse material, including one picture depicting a girl believed to be between four and six.
Defence barrister Daniel Thomas said his client was “disgusted” with himself, was not a risk to his own children.
O’Connell was sentenced to six months imprisonment with immediate release and placed on a two-year good behaviour order.
Janet Tran
A Melbourne mother who acted as a broker for a Malaysian heroin trafficking syndicate to fund her drug and gambling addictions was jailed for her offending.
Janet Tran, 50, pleaded guilty to charges of heroin trafficking and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime in the County Court.
Judge John Carmody sentenced her to seven years and seven months in prison, with a minimum non parole of four years and six months.
She trafficked 7.1kg of heroin over 10 transactions between April and May 2022.
Six people total were arrested as part of the operation and police recovered more than $600,000 in cash which were proceeds of crime, more than four kilograms of the about 14kg of heroin the Director of Public Prosecutions believes was trafficked, and other items, during pre-dawn raids last year.
In court Judge Carmody said Tran was the broker and conduit between drug dealers.
Born in Vietnam, the mother spent one to two years in a refugee camp in Malaysia and at the age of 12, came to Australia as a refugee.
Andrew Hunter and Lauren Pendlebury
A “cruel and inhumane” couple forced their young son to sleep in the laundry for four consecutive nights during winter without a blanket and a pillow to punish him for being naughty.
Andrew Hunter, 47, and Lauren Pendlebury, 39, — who shared five children between them — fronted the County Court on a charge of false imprisonment and the former on an additional charge of assault.
The couple’s cruelty was revealed after Hunter informed a worker at their son’s childcare centre of their actions and police were notified. After Hunter had dropped off the child at his preschool on June 21, 2018 a worker at the centre asked if he had a jumper, Hunter said, “Yes, that would be good because he’ll need to warm his bones” as he (the son) had slept in the laundry the previous night.
Pendlebury told Fawkner police she’d had enough of the boy’s bad behaviour, his lying, he’s taking his seatbelt off in the car, his toilet training got worse, and “just all sorts of things”.
Hunter was sentenced to a 22-months Community Corrections Order and ordered to perform 120 hours of unpaid community work, while Pendlebury was slapped with a 15-month CCO must do 80 hours of community work.
Delahey’s Jane Galea
A drugged-up mum of five broke into a school and childcare centre in Melbourne’s west to steal electronic goods young students used in class.
Jane Galea pleaded guilty to burglary and two counts of theft at Sunshine Magistrates’ Court on September 6.
The court heard that before 6.30am on October 16 2022, Galea broke into the office building and classrooms of Deanside Primary School.
The 28-year-old then stole an iPad, Apple Pencil, and a box of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) before walking to the neighbouring ‘Big Childcare’ and taking a Samsung tablet.
She was on bail at the time.
Ms Casey said her client was using substances and was unemployed at the time of the offending but had worked hard to turn her life around and had enrolled in a university course.
Rebecca Taylor and Heather Snelleksz
A mother and daughter con artist pair pocketed more than $2m in an education rort where they referred to students as “sausages”.
Rebecca Taylor and daughter Heather Snelleksz, who ran training company TayTell, fessed up to their rort in the County Court on two charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Taylor, 56, who owns TayTell, received $2.2m from the Department of Education and Training but students enrolled in the Certificate IV in Engineering at South West TAFE in Warrnambool and Bendigo Kangan TAFE said they had only received a few hours of instruction, far short of the 1400 hours required to qualify.
The claims began in late 2013 and continued into 2014. The commission began to investigate the matter in late 2015, after a referral by the Victorian Ombudsman.
They enrolled family members in the course as well as those who were not eligible for public funding. TayTell submitted enrolments that incorrectly recorded a group of prospective students as Jetstar employees, including false Jetstar email addresses, and referred to students as “sausages” in coded messages.
In one case, Taylor’s brother-in-law discovered he had been enrolled in a course as an employee of utility company Zinfra, despite him working at a lavender farm.
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