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Two Melbourne men jailed for creating fake documents to get to AFL Grand Final in Perth

Two Melbourne men have been jailed for three months after they created fake documents so they could sneak into Western Australia to attend the AFL Grand Final.
Hayden Burbank, 49 and Mark Babbage, 39, fronted Perth Magistrates’ Court today, each pleading guilty to charges of gaining by fraud and three charges of breaching COVID laws in WA.

They will now each spend Christmas behind bars.

Morris Jones owner Hayden Burbank allegedly pictured after the AFL gf (Supplied)

The court heard Burbank, the owner of Melbourne bar and restaurant Morris Jones, falsified vehicle, rental and bank documents when he arrived in Darwin from Victoria on September 14.

His friend Babbage went to the sophisticated lengths of transferring his drivers licence to a Northern Territory one.

The pair then used those fake forms to enter Perth as tourists on September 22, despite failing to meet a string of WA’s hard border rules.

The court heard the men did not think they were a threat to WA, but police argued they could have exposed 60,000 fans to a Delta strain super spreader event.

Babbage’s lawyer described his client’s actions as “appalling” and with “an element of deceit”.

The lawyer said Babbage was from Mt Hotham, which wasn’t under stay-at-home orders, and had tested negative to COVID-19 in Darwin and was fully vaccinated.

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