Victorian restaurateur, financial planner plead guilty after sneaking into WA for AFL grand final using fake documents

Two diehard Melbourne Demons fans who sneaked into Perth via Darwin to watch the AFL grand final will spend months in a WA jail.

UPDATE: Two Victorians who sneaked into Perth using false documentation to attend the sellout grand final have been sent to jail for at least three months after spending the past 15 days in custody.

Prominent Melbourne restaurateur Hayden Burbank, 49, and his 39-year-old financial planner friend Mark Babbage left Melbourne for Darwin on September 14, then flew to Perth on September 22.

The mad Demons fans went to the premiership decider at Optus Stadium on September 25 and were snapped mingling among players in the change rooms after the team’s drought-breaking win against the Western Bulldogs.

The images were posted on the AFL’s official Instagram account.

Footage of Hayden Burbank & Mark Babbage celebrating the Melbourne football club’s premiership.

The pair breached Western Australia’s strict border rules because they did not meet criteria to get an exemption to enter the state - coming from a high risk jurisdiction - did not have a Covid-19 test 72 hours before leaving it and show evidence of a negative result, and did not declare on their G2G form that they had come from Victoria.

After Babbage entered guilty pleas, defence counsel Seamus Rafferty conceded imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence but urged Magistrate Matthew Holgate to wholly suspend it.

Mr Rafferty argued Babbage had come from Mount Hotham, which was not subject to stay-at-home orders at the time.

“You know you’ve been in an area that hasn’t got Covid ... you make an appalling decision,” he said.

Mr Rafferty said his client was deeply remorseful and a first-time offender who had engaged in “one ongoing course of conduct”, but conceded it was selfish while the fraud charge was serious as it involved “an element of deceit”.

The magistrate was not convinced by the call for a wholly suspended sentence, handing down a 10-month jail sentence, with three months to be served immediately.

The remaining seven months was suspended for 10 months.

Burbank copped the same penalty.

Perth was on edge after the pair’s actions emerged and one of the men returned an inconclusive Covid-19 test result, but he was later cleared.

EARLIER UPDATE: TWO Victorians who snuck into Perth using false documentation to attend the sellout grand final have pleaded guilty to their charges after spending the past 15 days in custody.

Prominent Melbourne restaurateur Hayden Burbank, 49, and his 39-year-old financial planner friend Mark Babbage left Melbourne for Darwin on September 14, then flew to Perth on September 22.

The mad Demons fans went to the premiership decider at Optus Stadium on September 25 and were snapped mingling among players in the change rooms after the team’s drought-breaking win against the Western Bulldogs.

The images were posted on the AFL’s official Instagram account.

The pair breached Western Australia’s strict border rules because they did not meet criteria to get an exemption to enter the state – coming from a high risk jurisdiction – did not have a Covid-19 test 72 hours before leaving it and show evidence of a negative result, and did not declare on their G2G form that they had come from Victoria.

Perth Magistrates Court heard on Wednesday morning that Babbage had provided a falsified Northern Territory driver’s licence, an ANZ bank statement showing an NT address and an NT residential tenancy agreement.

When NT Police went to the property, the residents said they had never heard of the pair.

They were arrested days later in Bunker Bay, in the state’s South West region, after WA Police called for public tip-offs to find them.

Both were charged with three counts of breaching the Emergency Management Act – which has a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail or a fine of $50,000 – and fraud for the falsified documents.

After Babbage entered guilty pleas, defence counsel Seamus Rafferty conceded imprisonment was the only appropriate sentence but urged Magistrate Matthew Holgate to wholly suspend it.

Mr Rafferty argued Babbage had come from Mount Hotham, which was not subject to stay-at-home orders at the time.

“You know you’ve been in an area that hasn’t got Covid … you make an appalling decision,” he said.

Mr Rafferty said his client was deeply remorseful and a first-time offender who had engaged in “one ongoing course of conduct”, but conceded it was selfish while the fraud charge was serious as it involved “an element of deceit”.

Mr Burbank’s defence counsel Andrew Tehan did not make sentencing submissions on Wednesday morning but the matter will resume in the afternoon.

Perth was on edge after the pair’s actions emerged and one of the men returned an inconclusive Covid-19 test result, but he was later cleared.

EARLIER: NT POLICE have issued summons to appear in court for two Victorian men who allegedly falsified documents to claim to be NT residents to attend the AFL grand final in Western Australia.

Police say prominent Victorian restaurateur Hayden Burbank and his financial planner friend Mark Babbage entered the Northern Territory from Victoria on September 14.

On arrival they completed a border entry form and agreed to self-quarantine and Covid testing, with police alleging they did not isolate while awaiting for their results following further investigations.

Both men allegedly fraudulently submitted falsified documents to obtain driver’s licences and open bank accounts in the NT.

On September 22 they travelled from Darwin into Western Australia, allegedly claiming to be NT residents.

WA Police later arrested the pair for Covid-19 breaches, where they were remanded until October 13.

NT Serious Crime Detectives issued summons for the two men for contravention of emergency declaration, giving false name/misleading information, knowingly uttering forged document and criminal deception to obtain benefit.

Incident Controller Commander Sachin Sharma said the pair were due to appear in Darwin Local Court on November 16.

“Police will allege that both these men have gone to great lengths to circumvent the Chief Health Officers directions, designed to keep our community safe, and in doing so have committed serious crimes,” Commander Sharma said.

“NT Police have been working in conjunction with WA Police and investigations into this incident are still ongoing. I would like to reassure the community that these men did not arrive from a hotspot in Victoria and have since retuned negative Covid test results.

“There is no risk to the Northern Territory community and the police will continue to have a zero tolerance approach for any such activities.”