Hayden Burbank, Mark Babbage: Darwin court to hear guilty pleas for false documentation

Two Victorian men jailed for using false documents to sneak into the AFL Grand Final in Perth via the NT will also plead guilty to similar charges in Darwin, a court has heard.

TWO Victorian men jailed for using false documents to sneak into the AFL Grand Final in Perth via the NT this year will also plead guilty to similar charges in Darwin, a court has heard.

Melbourne restaurateur Hayden Burbank, 49, and 39-year-old financial planner Mark Babbage are currently serving seven month jail sentences, to be suspended after three months, in Western Australia.

The pair pleaded guilty to fraud and breaching WA’s chief health officer directions after admitting to falsifying NT driver’s licences and other documents so they could attend the Aussie rules decider.

Hayden Burbank and Mark Babbage celebrate the Demons’ win. Picture: Channel 7

After the transgressions emerged in WA, NT Police also charged the men with contravening an emergency declaration, forgery and fraud.

On Tuesday, their lawyer, Peter Maley, told the Darwin Local Court they would also be pleading guilty in the Territory after they were released from custody next month.

“They are in a correctional facility in Western Australia, their last day is the 28th of December,” he said.

“They’ll be released and then make their way home thereafter so my application is to adjourn this to some time in early February.”

Mr Maley said the case had “resolved from a factual perspective” and given it was much the same as the WA offending, more jail time was “highly unlikely”.

“We have an agreed set of facts, it’s going to be a plea, it’s going to resolve,” he said.

Burbank and Babbage will return to court via video link from Victoria on February 9.