Matthew Dellevergine: Mill Park drug dealer impersonates police
A Mill Park man has fitted flashing red and blue lights to his car so he could drive on the wrong side of the road on his way to a pub in Melbourne’s north — at 8am. But it wasn’t the main reason why cops raided his home a few months later.
North
Don't miss out on the headlines from North. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Mill Park drug dealer impersonated a police officer so he could take over the road on his way to the pub.
Matthew Dellevergine was sentenced to four months’ jail when he fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court, pleading guilty to a range of charges including trafficking GHB and holding himself to be a police officer.
The 34-year-old, who’s far from a stranger to police, fitted flashing red and blue lights to his car dashboard as he drove to Mernda’s Bridge Inn Hotel about 8am on February 13.
Witnesses watched him drive on the wrong side of the road and go the wrong way around a roundabout while using the false lights.
Dellevergine then stole petrol from Caltex Mernda in March and was caught driving on methamphetamine and carrying cartridge ammunition shells in Bundoora in June.
He tried to steal $130 groceries from Coles Plenty Valley in July, leading police to finding he was dealing methamphetamine and carrying GHB.
Police then found a stolen Toyota at Dellevergine’s Mill Park home in August, days before he was found in a car with methamphetamine and a heap of stolen goods.
Dellevergine, who’d kept committing crimes on bail and a County Court community corrections order, was finally taken into custody on September 16 when police forced their way into his Mill Park home, rightfully believing he was trafficking GHB.
They found 20ml GHB, deal bags, plungers, ice pipes, scales, a funnel and a bong.
Messages on Dellevergine’s phone revealed he had been selling the drug from the address.
Lawyer Sally Vardy said her client worked in construction before 2014 when he fell into drug addiction then offending.
Magistrate Denise Livingstone fined him $1500 and disqualified him from driving for 12 months on top of the four month jail sentence, of which he’d already served 14 days.
MORE: WHY POLICE SAY NOTHING WILL STOP ALLEGED DRUG DEALER
‘OFF THE RAILS’: DRUGGED-UP MENACE’S DRIVING SHOCKERS