A "lawless" 19-year-old has been living a life of luxury, paying for high-end escorts, designer clothes and meals at expensive inner-city restaurants all funded, a court has heard, by the proceeds of a criminal syndicate he controlled.
Mahmoud Taha, 19, from Broadmeadows, was in August charged as the "principal offender" in a string of armed robberies around Melbourne between May and July.
![Mahmoud Taha has, police say, been living a 'particularly lavish lifestyle'.](/web/20160914212953im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/1/0/0/k/8/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.grg9gd.png/1473837212643.jpg)
Mr Taha application for bail was refused in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where Deputy Chief Magistrate Jelena Popovic ruled he posed an "unacceptable risk" of breaching his bail conditions.
Detective Senior Constable Elise Douglas told the court that Taha regularly paid others to commit crimes on his behalf, promising to pay them cash and other rewards in return without any "legitimate means of funding such an enterprise".
Despite having no "legitimate form of income", she said police had discovered through thousands of phone intercepts that Mr Taha "leads a particularly lavish lifestyle, which includes dining at expensive inner-city restaurants, employing the services of high-end escorts, staying in luxury hotels and apartments, purchasing expensive designer brand clothing and using cocaine regularly."
Senior Constable Douglas said police opposed bail.
"[Mr] Taha's constant offending over the last few months show that he is completely lawless," Senior Constable Douglas said
"Police believe that Taha will not comply with any conditions of bail."
Six days after his bail was last extended in June, Mr Taha had been involved in three commercial burglaries, two car-jackings and "a prolonged period of dangerous driving", she said.
When Mr Taha found out on July 10 that police were monitoring him, he targeted two cars containing undercover police, driving directly at one of them "before exiting his vehicle and causing damage to the covert vehicle," the detective said.
He was sentenced to a community corrections order in July, which he also breached by failing to attend a number of appointments.
She conceded under cross-examination from Mr Taha's lawyer, Philip Dunn, QC, that the police case against his client was largely circumstantial, relying on tracking evidence that placed his phone at various crime scenes.
Magistrate Popovic said that despite this, "I have no confidence at all that Mr Taha will comply with any bail conditions I impose".
"I hesitate to use the word lawless but can't think of any other word to describe his ... pattern of behaviour since going to the Children's Court in August 2014," she said.
"He does not comply with court orders, bail, corrections orders, directions, police directions, takes serious and dangerous actions to avoid detection and in terms of avoiding the police [engages in conduct] that endangers police."
The magistrate noted that Mr Taha's lawyers had not presented any proof that, given evidence of his luxurious lifestyle, he had learned "any life lessons" from his previous brusehs with the law.
Mr Dunn had earlier argued that at 19, Mr Taha would be much younger than his fellow adult prisoners.
"With proper supervision and care no one is a lost cause," Mr Dunn said.
Mr Taha is facing 28 criminal charges including stealing cars, watches, jewelery and cigarettes, sometimes armed with weapons such as a sledge hammer, baseball bat and a revolver.
He is also charged with a number of driving offences, including driving without a valid licence, driving on the wrong side of the road at excessive speeds, evading police while being pursued on bail and driving dangerously after police have directed him to stop his car.
More to come