"Crazy John" Dead At 42

A constant stream of family and friends has descended on the Brighton home of 42-year-old mobile phone millionaire John Ilhan who died after a heart attack this morning while on a walking track near his home. About 20 groups went through the gates of the Seacomb Grove mansion where Mr Ilhan, owner of Crazy John's, lived with his family, shocked at the popular entrepreneur's death. Mr Ilhan died at Elwood Park, about 3km north of his home. Mr Ilhan was walking in the park when he collapsed close to the Elwood Croquet Club. Residents living close to the park said emergency crews were on the scene at around 7.40am. They said crews worked frantically to revive Mr Illhan.

Witnesses from the croquet club said police and ambulances were at the scene until after 10am. Crazy John's chairman Barry Hamilton and managing director Brendan Fleiter also confirmed that the self-made millionaire was walking near his Brighton home this morning when the incident happened. "He was walking along a bike track there and had a heart attack,'' Mr Hamilton said. "Someone called an ambulance, which arrived pretty quickly, but he couldn't be revived.'' Mr Hamilton said the company this morning began informing Crazy John's employees of their boss's death. "It's a pretty big shock. We've been making sure that the staff here were aware of it before it became too public,'' Mr Hamilton said. "It's extremely difficult for us to deal with - it's just such a shock.'' Mr Ilhan, who changed his name from Mustafa, emigrated to Australia from Turkey and, along with Channel Nine star Eddie McGuire, grew up in the working class suburb of Broadmeadows.

Mr Ilhan made his name selling $1 mobile phones and built an empire of 120 stores and more than 600 employees. In July, Ilhan cut ties with Telstra and partnered with Vodafone after a two-year, $70 million court wrangle over Crazy John's demand that it repay several million dollars in commissions. The Smorgon family, the Newton family's Selpam Group and the National Australia Bank, stepped up in late July to invest a reported $75 million in his expansion plans, in what he described as ''starting over''. Appearing on the Seven Network's Today Tonight last night, Mr Ilhan revealed how he had begun ''praying every night'' after the death of his brother. "I lost my brother 10 years ago, when my brother passed away I struggled. I was so sad, so traumatised by the whole experience, I didn't go to work for three months, I didn't get out of bed, it wasn't depression but it was something. I was so traumatised," he told the program. "I just started praying every night and that's what got me through it, until I started praying I couldn't get through it, I'd collapse in the shower and cry like a baby, I'd drive my car and cry like a baby." He is survived by his wife, Patricia, and four children, including an eight-month-old son.