Hide and seek game near Hamze house sparks police investigation

An intense police investigation was prompted by a game of hide and seek on a street near Maha Hamze’s house last week.

Kidnappings in the underworld are almost passe, so when a member of the public reported someone being put in the boot of a vehicle on the street near Maha Hamze’s place last week the cops thought, ‘‘Here we go again’’.

The first reaction would have been that one of the Hamze clan may have been grabbed by arch rivals the Alameddine to be tortured or worse.

Some intense investigation soon resolved the matter when a couple of teenagers were discovered to have been playing a pretty risky, yet innocent, game of hide and seek.

Maha Hamze.

DOM PERROTTET’S NEW JOB

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet is taking the brutal lessons of the NSW Bear Pit to the kids’ basketball courts, officially taking over as coach for his daughter’s U13 team.

The Panthers have a tough master. When the girls won 25-2 on Tuesday, Perrottet said wryly it was a good result but it should have been 25-nil.

Asked what skills from politics he was taking to the junior basketball courts, he laughed: “complete cutthroat style”.

Dominic Perrottet gives the Under-13 Panthers some tip. Picture: Supplied

He attended the 5.30pm match in Castle Hill, before returning to work — a luxury he won’t be able to afford when parliament is sitting. Perrottet had a full plate this week, despite the parliamentary recess.

On Wednesday he took an early morning flight to Breeza, south of Gunnedah, before jetting back to the city for the Sydney CBD Summit.

Among his contributions at that summit: suggesting fringe benefits tax could be suspended to bring back the long lunch, and proposing the Cahill Expressway should be closed to cars.

Perhaps some of that “cutthroat style” on show.

FOX ON THE RUN FOR CHARITY

Olympic kayaker Jessica Fox will be ready for Tokyo 2021, come hell or high water.

Fox’s training was derailed after the recent NSW floods ravaged Penrith’s Whitewater Stadium.

“It’s been a rollercoaster. I’m feeling fit and healthy and training has been great, despite some setbacks with the floods disrupting our training the last few weeks,” Fox said.

Molly Picklum (l to r), Sam Bloom and Jess Fox are taking part in Red Bull’s Wings for Life Run. Picture: Tim Hunter

“Our lead-in prep is still uncertain in regards to international competitions and training camps, but I’m staying positive and ­focusing on what I can control to get to Tokyo.”

Fox is teaming up with Paralympian Sam Bloom and ­surfer Molly Picklum for Red Bull’s Wings for Life World Run on May 9, where runners around the world start at the same time and raise money for spinal cord injury research.

“Seeing young men and women who have sustained a spinal cord injury breaks my heart and a cure can’t come soon enough,” Bloom said.

For more information: wingsforlifeworldrun.com

BARRISTER ROLLED BY COURT

Julian Siggins has been struck off the roll of lawyers after he practised as a barrister in Sydney for years without a certificate.

The Sydney lawyer took the NSW Bar Exam in 2008 and 2009 but failed both times, the NSW Supreme Court found.

During his first attempt he sat only two of the three exams, and failed by “a significant margin”.

That meant he didn’t have the certificate to practise as a barrister. But Siggins didn’t let that stop him — he went to the bar associations of Tasmania and Queensland to get his hands on a practising certificate, the NSW Supreme Court found.

For six years, until 2017, Siggins was living in Sydney and working as a barrister but only had the right to practise in Queensland.

The NSW Bar Association took Siggins to court, saying the barrister “repeatedly and dishonestly” told authorities he would be working in Queensland while he was actually in Sydney.

The court last month ruled Siggins be struck off the NSW roll.

He now practises in Victoria.