By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A Dandenong man has pleaded guilty to about 50 charges involving a spree of hooning, high-speed police pursuits and scamming Government disaster assistance schemes.
Dylan Desmond Milkins, 23, registered an ABN for a fictitious labour-hire and supply business with false GST credits to receive $24,170 in Covid disaster payments in 2021, Dandenong Magistrates Court heard on 8 June.
He also made a second attempt to extract $24,870 in the same manner.
Milkins also falsely claimed to be living in flood-hit Penrith NSW and Seymour in rural Victoria to gain $1000 in Commonwealth disaster relief and another attempt for $1000.
He told police that he’d come across the “scheme” on social media.
Among his illegal driving spree was a 36-second burnout dangerously near a crowd of spectators in the middle of Belgrave-Hallam Road in Hallam on New Years Eve night, police told the court.
As part of the midnight burnout, his passenger lit a series of fireworks and dropped them from his unregistered Commodore.
The incident was said to have terrified dogs inside a nearby pet resort.
Unbeknown to Milkins, a by-stander also walked up to the car, while it produced voluminous smoke and flicked out its rear end metres from the crowd, police stated.
A police intelligence officer discovered video of the episode posted on Milkins’ social media account. He later told police he believed he was fully in control of his car at the time.
Milkins was also charged over a late-night police pursuit across Narre Warren, Lynbrook, Dandenong, Springvale and Mulgrave, clocking 150 km/h-plus speeds and running a red light in February 2021.
In a second pursuit, the suspended P-plater on bail cut through and overtook traffic at high speed, reaching 160 km/h in the Monash Freeway emergency lane.
A police officer called off the pursuit due to the alleged dangerous driving.
Milkins, with no prior convictions, had spent 78 days in pre-sentence custody – a term that magistrate Jason Ong indicated was “insufficient”.
Defence lawyer Elarya George argued for his release on a community corrections order, including mental health and drug and alcohol treatment as well as road safety education and unpaid work.
Mr Ong said he needed to be convinced that a CCO was appropriate given the “lengthy and serious offending”.
He noted the police pursuits and a burnout occurred when Milkins shouldn’t have been driving, as well as the pair of fraudulent schemes against the Commonwealth.
Milkins will appear for pleas and sentencing at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 16 June.
