Pasquale Barbaro: Bail fail allowed violent Mafia crime lord to roam streets

EXCLUSIVE: A bail farce left slain crime boss Pasquale Barbaro free to wage violence on Sydney streets when he should have been locked up for repeated breaches of bail.

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VIOLENT Mafia standover man Pasquale Barbaro was ­repeatedly set free to terrorise our streets for three years, despite facing court ­numerous times on charges of assault and intimidation in ­a blatant ­violation of his bail conditions.

In a damning indictment of the state’s bail laws, a series of magistrates failed to revoke Barbaro’s bail — awarded in 2013 for a drug manufacturing charge that would have locked him up for 20 years — during four separate court cases.

The condition of the unstable and aggressive gangster’s bail was that he “be of good behaviour” and not commit a single offence.

Barbaro is caught on CCTV speaking with Farhad Qaumi, a Brothers 4 Life member.

Sydney underworld identity Pasquale Barbaro was murdered in Earlwood earlier this month.

And yet not one of the magistrates who heard his intimidation and assault cases revoked his bail.

The shocking revelation of how lenient the courts were on Barbaro comes as new figures show the average defendant granted bail in the District and Supreme Courts is free for nearly two years, posing a ­serious risk to the community.

The police union said the Barbaro bail debacle was a “slap in the face” to officers, while a leading victim support group said criminal lawyers were exploiting loopholes to keep career criminals free on bail for as long as they could.

In 2012, Barbaro was charged with manufacturing 2kg of ice and was granted bail in a local court in May 2013. Despite facing one of the most serious offences in NSW — commercial drug manufacturing — the cocky gangster blatantly and repeatedly flouted the law.

In one sickening incident he accosted a 72-year-old grandmother, calling her an “old Jewish piece of shit” and then boasted to police that he lived in “the nicest house on Darling Point” after a minor fender bender in August 2014.

The case was heard in January this year in Waverley Local Court, resulting in Barbaro, who drove a $2 million Lamborghini and had a collection of expensive watches, being fined a paltry $250.

Police from the NSW Public Order and Riot squad at the scene of Barbaro’s murder/

In September this year Barbaro pleaded guilty to common assault, stalking and intimidating with fear of physical harm.

The magistrate gave him 150 hours of community service and continued his bail.

Two months earlier, the mobster’s wife Melinda Barbaro took out an AVO against him. And in February 2015 he was charged with threatening to use unlawful violence to persons unknown in Double Bay. The court believed his plea of not guilty and allowed him to walk free again.

Barbaro was sitting in his luxury Mercedes when he was ambushed. Picture: Bill Hearne

During his three years on bail Barbaro was listed to appear in court a staggering 41 times — a shocking statistic that was slammed by NSW Police Association president Scott Weber as “a slap in the face” for police offices.

“It creates a revolving door justice system and sends the message to individuals on bail they can keep having numerous breaches. It’s incredibly frustrating for hardworking police officers,” he said.

NSW Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton refused to comment on the Barbaro bail debacle, saying only that the Baird government would “continue to keep a close eye on the bail laws to ensure they are working to keep the community safe”.

Barbaro turns up for one of his many court dates

NSW Attorney General Gabrielle Upton.

NSW Victims of Crime Assistance League vice-president Howard Brown said it was disgrace Barbaro was a free man.

“Some lawyers I think take advantage of the system to try and prolong cases to give their clients more time free on bail,” Mr Brown said.

Even though the Baird government has toughened up the state’s bail laws, legal sources told The Daily Telegraph that the average bail time for District and Supreme Courts is at its highest in five years at an average of 575 days — up from 497 days in 2011.