Media Street: Serial pest Nelly Yoa interviewed on SEN

SEN has “taken responsibility” for allowing serial fabricator Nelly Yoa on the air to be interviewed by the teenage host of its kids’ sports program.

Nelly Yoa leaves the County Court in Melbourne in 2019.

Serial pest Nelly Yoa and his elaborate lies have claimed another victim.

Yoa, who is known for his fabrication of outlandish stories, popped up on SEN on Sunday morning on a show hosted by 16-year-old Max Becker.

And, once again, he’d spun his way onto the airwaves.

Poor Becker and his production team were fooled by Yoa’s sprouting, which over the journey has included claims of being a close friend of Usain Bolt and an aspiring Socceroo who trialled at EPL club Chelsea.

He also previously uploaded a video to YouTube about training with Collingwood while his social media pages are littered with questionable posts including a claim that he was nominated for Australian of the Year in 2021.

Back in 2018 Yoa was pictured with then Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson on the red carpet at the Brownlow Medal. He claimed he’d received a VIP invitation but was kicked out after being found hiding in a toilet.

On Sunday Becker started the segment by saying he was “honoured” to have Yoa on the show before questioning him about “rubbing shoulders” with Usain Bolt and LeBron James.

And it got worse from there.

Thankfully, someone smelt a rat in SEN after the interview and decided to not upload it to the station’s podcast, meaning there is no record of the Yoa ramblings.

Nelly Yoa made an appearance on SEN last weekend. Picture: Jason Edwards

An SEN spokesperson confirmed the embarrassing blunder to Media Street: “An interview aired briefly that shouldn’t have that wasn’t vetted by our team. We have addressed the matter and reaffirmed our vetting process.

“The interview hasn’t been made available on our digital platforms and we take responsibility.”

Becker is a protege of SEN boss Craig Hutchison, who took a liking to the teenager when he appeared on his podcast The Sporting Max.

He made a big impression on Hutchison, who then found a show for Becker to steer each Sunday morning called The Kids’ Edition.

The program, which runs from 8am-9am, was previously hosted by AFLW star Daisy Pearce, with Becker taking over as co-host alongside another AFLW star Ellie Blackburn last year.

Yoa was back in the headlines late last year when he tricked South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas’ social media team to help facilitate his latest publicity stunt in Adelaide.

It was from the LIV Golf Tour launch with Yoa uploading a photo – which was taken by someone in the room – of Malinauskas and Greg Norman on stage with a caption that described the coup as a “massive get for Adelaide and Australia”.

The Premier’s account and Norman both shared his post to their hundreds of thousands of followers.

SEN owner Craig Hutchison.

Yoa rose to prominence when he fabricated a story – which made the front page of The Age in 2018 – about his involvement mentoring South Sudanese youth during a rise in gang violence in Victoria.

He was later convicted of perjury after he fabricated a story to police about being assaulted by a woman.

Yoa made a scene arriving at Melbourne Magistrates court with a bizarre entourage of security guards and luxury cars. He got out of a white Rolls-Royce wearing a pink jacket and was flanked by eight “bodyguards”, who ran alongside the car as it arrived.

Yoa claimed he got the cars for his “good mate” Mick Gatto, who later confirmed he’d never heard of Yoa.

Deputy chief magistrate Felicity Broughton didn’t miss him when handing down sentencing, saying: “Your preoccupation with your reputation and public image are a confabulation of a narcissistic individual ... aimed at protecting any constructed public image,”

Originally published as Media Street: Serial pest Nelly Yoa interviewed on SEN