Brandon Hart: Epping dad’s ‘extraordinary’ drug-fuelled demise

He lost his job, family and liberty to his drug addiction. But this Epping criminal dad has shocked authorities as they try to rehabilitate him.

Brandon Hart told Corrections Victoria he used drugs in prison.

An Epping dad who lost his job, family and liberty to his drug addiction, says he doesn’t see the issue with drug use, a court has heard.

Brandon Hart was dubbed an “extraordinary” example of the dangers of using drugs when he was sentenced to 73 days’ jail at the Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Monday, November 23.

The 27-year-old pleaded guilty to breaching two corrections orders by not complying with them and by committing more crimes, including possessing drugs and using stolen credit cards.

Brandon Hart has been in custody three times.

Brandon Hart

The court heard upon getting out of prison the Epping dad had told Corrections Victoria he’d been using drugs inside, and had no intention of giving them up, not seeing a problem with them.

He turned up to one of his appointments wearing Hells Angels paraphernalia with what appeared to be a broken nose and bruised knuckles, the court heard.

The corrections officer revealed Hart, who had a history of using firearms, said he wanted to “smash” a woman.

He said Corrections Victoria had serious concerns about Hart, recommending he needed more intensive support than the service could offer.

Hart’s lawyer said her client had been a boilermaker who lived with a partner and his two children and owned a home until he got into ice and crime at the end of 2018.

She pushed for him to be released from jail and allowed to continue on the two corrections orders.

Magistrate Stephen Ballek said Hart’s “really big fall” from his “useful and productive life” was “extraordinary”.

Mr Ballek said he had serious concerns about Hart’s motivation but, noting he was only 27, sentenced him to the 73 days he’d been in jail and restarted both his corrections orders for 18-month periods.