Frankston father Taylor Mason blew $5k of his COVID superannuation cash on bag of ice
Superannuation rules were relaxed to help cash-strapped people fight the pandemic. But this Frankston father decided to blow $5000 of his funds on drugs.
South East
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A cashed-up drug abuser spent almost $5000 of his COVID superannuation on a big bag of ice, a court has heard.
Taylor Mason who also flipped his car while high on meth and was caught making out with a girlfriend in the back of a car.
The 36-year-old Frankston printer also repeatedly breached orders forbidding him from contacting two women, and pretended to be his twin brother when he was nabbed driving without a licence.
Mason pleaded guilty to drugs, driving, weapons and court order contravention charges at Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, November 4.
The court heard police received an anonymous phone call on May 12 that Mason was at a Bentleigh address he shouldn’t be anywhere near.
When officers investigated they found him hiding behind a bedroom door with a 21.8g bag of ice in his pocket.
Mason told officers he had bought the drugs by withdrawing $4700 from his superannuation account, funds which had been released to him because of the coronavirus pandemic.
On March 2, Mason fell asleep while driving in Frankston, hitting a tree and flipping his car.
After being taken to hospital a blood sample revealed he had been using ice.
Mason admitted smoking the drug 24 hours before the crash, saying he “woke up in mid-air”, and had no idea how the collision happened.
On March 25 patrolling police came across a car parked suspiciously in a Heatherton industrial estate.
Inside they discovered Mason and a woman in an “intimate” situation.
And on March 27 he was found in a Bentleigh car park with empty deal bags, a small quantity of ice, a flick knife and prescription pills.
Mason, a father of a four-year-old, has now been in custody for 65 days.
His defence lawyer said Mason’s criminal offending was “inextricably tied” to the “pernicious effects of methamphetamine use”.
She said he knows his life had been “grieved by drug abuse” but he was not beyond redemption and with support could be an active member of the community.
Magistrate Michael King said he was considering a combination sentence of a short jail term to be followed by a community corrections order.
Dr King said while Mason had not been charged with trafficking drugs, the large quantity of ice he was found with was a concern.
He was remanded in custody for a corrections assessment and will be sentenced on November 6.
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