AFL border breacher Hayden Burbank: ‘Greatest night of my life’
Border jumper Hayden Burbank has broken his silence on the greatest night of his life and the jail time that followed.
Police & Courts
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It’s the first question you get asked, every, single, time: “What are ya in for?”
But every inmate of West Australia’s maximum security Hakea prison already knew who the “Border Breacher” was.
It became Hayden Burbank’s jailhouse nickname for the longest three months of his life.
The Melbourne bar owner is speaking exclusively for the first time since being arrested and thrown in the slammer for breaching West Australia’s Covid restrictions and entering the state under false documentation to watch his beloved Demons play in the 2021 Grand Final.
Border jumping footy fan avoids more jail time
A MELBOURNE footy fan has escaped further jail time after breaching Northern Territory border rules to attend the 2021 AFL grand final in Perth.
Financial planner Mark Babbage pleaded guilty to three charges in the Darwin Local Court on Tuesday, including contravention of emergency declaration.
In September he and fellow fan, Hayden Burbank, falsely claimed to live at an NT address so that they could dodge Western Australian border rules in September.
The pair travelled to Darwin from Melbourne on September 14 after falsifying an NT’s driver’s license and an NT residential tenancy agreement.
They then broke quarantine requirements by flying to Perth on September 22. At the time Victoria was classified as a high risk zone by WA health directions. The two fans were spotted mingling with other supporters and players following the Demons’ grand final win and were arrested by WA police on September 28. They were sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, with seven months suspended in WA.
Appearing in Darwin court, Babbage pleaded guilty to the charges of contravention of emergency declaration, knowingly utter a forged document and obtaining benefit by deception. A fourth charge of giving misleading information was withdrawn and dismissed.
For the first charge judge Alan Woodcock sentenced Babbage to a 12 month good behaviour bond and for the other two charges he was given a six month jail sentence suspended for 12 months.
Burbank was given the same sentence after pleading guilty to all four charges on February 9.
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