David Henderson of Watsonia South allegedly caught with stolen mail
A driver stopped in Reservoir at 4.40am allegedly had stolen mail, drugs and a dossier of personal information including phone, licence and bank account numbers – and a pretty unbelievable excuse.
North
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A man found driving around at 4.40am allegedly had a heap of drugs and stolen goods, including more than 50 people’s mail, and a dossier of victims’ personal details.
There was allegedly more than 23 grams of methamphetamine in David Henderson’s car, with a stash in the roof found by a drug dog, and he had no reason to be out during Melbourne’s lockdown.
The 32-year-old fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Friday, August 21 to apply for bail, having spent 39 days behind bars.
The court heard police saw Henderson driving a black Volkswagen Golf with stolen number plates on Boldrewood Parade, Reservoir on July 13.
In the car police alleged they found a black folder with mail from different addresses, including bank statements, security documents and six letters with bank cards attached.
Lists of many victims’ details, including names, addresses, licence numbers and expiry dates, phone numbers, Medicare numbers and bank account numbers including BSB numbers were also allegedly discovered.
Police also allegedly found someone else’s licence with Henderson’s photo added to it, three stolen bank cards, a stolen Medicare card and a licence stolen from a car in Endeavour Hills.
Henderson also allegedly had 19.74g of methamphetamine in three bags, 150ml of GHB in a powerade bottle, scales, Xanax pills, four phones, and a multi tool and torches believed to be used for theft.
Police also found a Casio watch, video camera and multiple pieces of jewellery they believed to be proceeds of crime.
Henderson was driving on a disqualified licence and breaching a condition of his bail that he not drive.
He allegedly told police someone must have thrown a backpack, which contained many of the items, into his car.
Constable David Messenger said when police later had a drug dog search the car, it located an ice pipe and 3.69 grams of methamphetamine in the roof of the car.
Police searched the Watsonia South share house where Henderson lived that evening, finding six laptops, suspected to have been stolen, and a laptop bag containing about 200 stolen documents in the shed.
Constable Messenger said the stolen documents included mail from more than 50 different addresses, including many pieces addressed a dentist clinic.
The court heard Henderson was on bail over an alleged incident in October.
Lawyer Chris Brydon said his client was particularly vulnerable in custody during the COVID-19 pandemic due to his asthma.
He said Henderson was contesting the matters, which would take months to sort out, and that Henderson saw his daughter regularly and could continue receiving drug treatment in the community.
Mr Brydon said there were issues in the police’s cases, particularly with the drug trafficking alleged, with police having no evidence of any clients of Henderson’s.
Magistrate Denise Livingstone refused to grant bail, saying Henderson was an unacceptable risk of offending, failing to answer bail and endangering the safety of any person.
She said it didn’t work for Henderson to claim to be concerned about COVID-19 in custody when he was breaching the conditions in the community.
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