Adrian Portelli denies doing donuts in car as he fights hooning charges in Melbourne court

Adrian Portelli has used a doctor’s letter to avoid giving evidence in person as he fights careless driving charges and denies doing donuts around a Melbourne street in a Mercedes C63.

Adrian Portelli was expected to be at court for the two-day hearing. Picture: Josh Robenstone

Billionaire Adrian Portelli has denied doing donuts as he fights hooning charges in a Melbourne court.

The 36-year-old, who runs an online lottery business LMCT+ that has seen his personal wealth boom to $1.6bn, was charged with careless driving, failing to have proper control of a vehicle on a road and driving in a manner causing one or more wheels of a motor vehicle to lose traction.

On December 22, 2020, police alleged Mr Portelli was “sliding” in a grey Mercedes C63 around a roundabout in Diggers Rest in Melbourne’s west on a rainy day.

Police won their fight to include in their case against Mr Portelli an exchange that allegedly took place between the billionaire and authorities after the incident.

Police alleged they asked him if it was a “bad day to do circle work”, to which Mr Portelli allegedly responded immediately with a laugh and said “tell me about it”.

The car was impounded after the incident.

Mr Portelli was expected to be at court for the two-day hearing for the driving charges, but his lawyers told the Sunshine Magistrates Court a letter from his doctor showed it was “highly undesirable” for him to give evidence in person.

Portelli has blamed a buggy GPS for the driving.

While the prosecution initially objected to Mr Portelli participating remotely, ultimately they said their position was “neutral” and the magistrate allowed the matter to proceed.

Giving evidence via video link, Mr Portelli denied he lost traction around the roundabout.

“(It’s) embarrassing. The GPS just bugged out and … in a moment (I) was going straight, hit the breaks … went around the roundabout again,” he told the court.

Asked what he thought a police officer was saying when he said it was a “bad day to be doing circle work”, Mr Portelli said: “I didn’t think anything of it to be honest”.

He said there are different definitions of circle work, including doing “donuts”.

“I would have assumed he was talking about me mistakenly going around the roundabout,” he said.

Mr Portelli said “that’s incorrect”, when responding to the proposition that police were suggesting he “was doing donuts”.

He also denied that he “circled around the roundabout in a deliberate way to lose traction”.

Mr Portelli’s barrister Penny Marcou, lost an application to have the exchange thrown out as evidence.

Earlier, the magistrate also rejected Mr Portelli’s lawyers’ claims of “lazy” police work referring to claims police had not analysed the car’s electronics or computer.

“This is a road side matter where the charges are summary. It would be amazing if the police were to issue warrants to interrogate the computer on every car they pull over for these sorts of offences,” Magistrate Michael McNamara said.

“I don’t think there is any real weight in suggesting that he has lost his right to silence and the suggestion of lazy investigation I think is incorrect.”

Later, police prosecutor Alex Turner challenged forensic engineer Shane Richardson’s report about the incident.

Dr Richardson claimed, based on police statements and use of mapping technology, that police could not have seen the tyres of the Mercedes spinning from their vantage point.

Mr Turner suggested Dr Richardson did not know exactly where police when they allegedly saw Mr Portelli circling the roundabout, how tall they were or the height of their car.

The case continues on Wednesday, when Mr Portelli is set to be cross examined by the police prosecutor.