Sydney criminal Instagram pages reveal lives of luxury before downfalls
On social media they appeared to be living it up – travelling the world, attending parties with the city’s rich, famous and powerful and embracing designer duds – but these Sydney crooks have now traded it all for prison greens.
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On the outside, some of Sydney’s most high profile criminals appeared to have it all – attending parties, flaunting chiselled bodies, wearing chains and mixing it up with the city’s most privileged and powerful.
But beneath the glittering surface gang affiliations, addictions, money troubles and a lust for the high life led these social media stalwarts astray.
From drug importation to gang activity, this is how Sydney’s most prominent crooks traded parties and power for prison sentences.
MATTHEW DOYLE
Before he found himself languishing in prison greens serving time for attempted drug supply, Matthew Doyle was living it up with the eastern suburbs’ society elite.
In 2020 Doyle, now 33, was sentenced to at least five years behind bars after he and two friends were ensnared in a sting in which he believed he was importing up to 300kg of cocaine to a Marrickville warehouse.
Doyle pleaded guilty to commercial drug supply and dealing with the proceeds of crime after a court heard he put down $220,000 as a down payment for the supposed drug haul.
The court heard Doyle said “you know I love money … I like money and I like making friends” when discussing what turned out to be a fake delivery of a drug that never existed.
“As I said to you, I’m not a gangster, I’m a businessman.”
Before his fall from grace, Doyle and his wife Kelsea were building a lucrative property portfolio and were frequently snapped at the eastern suburbs’ most in-demand venues and events.
Doyle is currently appealing the severity of his sentence in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
DARREN MOHR
One-time Bondi cafe king Darren Mohr once flaunted his muscles and tattoos on social media as he travelled around the world in pursuit of power, riches and glamour – but he now has plenty of time to reflect on the futility of fortune while he spends 18 years in prison.
Former eastern suburbs businessman Mohr, 48, was sentenced to a maximum 32 years in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit commercial drug importation.
A court heard Mohr organised a vessel to sail from Sydney Fish Market into international waters, where it would collect $150 million worth of drugs from a South American “mother ship” in October 2016.
Mohr – who once owned a cafe run by lifesavers from hit reality TV series Bondi Rescue – had hoped to net $5 million from the plot.
A court heard Mohr had travelled to Chile and Thailand to make the arrangements, and his social media posts boasted of his luxurious lifestyle complete with expensive cars and holidays.
However, the glittering depictions of the cafe owner’s up-market lifestyle were a smokescreen for a crippling cocaine addiction and his struggle with depression prior to his ultimate downfall.
Mohr will not be eligible for parole until 2037.
DAMION FLOWER
Ex-champion racehorse owner Damion Flower once rubbed shoulders with Sydney’s most rich, famous and powerful – but he has traded it all for a prison cell after he was caught in a drug syndicate that imported 228kg of cocaine into Australia.
Flower, 49, was sentenced to at least 17 years jail after he and his former workmate To’Oto’O Mafiti pleaded guilty to importing a commercial quantity of border controlled drugs.
The NSW District Court heard the pair imported a whopping 228kg of cocaine into Australia from South Africa over 12 occasions between 2016 and 2019 after they met while working as airport baggage handlers in the early 2000s.
When Flower was arrested in May 2019 police found $119,000 at his Moorebank home, $1.7 million cash at Mafiti’s Oran Park home and $4.4 million at storage facilities rented in Mafiti’s name.
In sentencing Flower, Judge Sarah Huggett referenced a psychological report in which Flower discussed how “he got caught up in the life that comes with the racing industry and was drinking, gambling and accumulating debt”.
Flower was the owner of champion racehorse Snitzel, described by Arrowfield Stud as “one of only six stallions in Australian history to win four consecutive premierships, and the only three-time champion two-year-old sire in the past two decades”.
Flower will be eligible for parole in 2036.
ROBERT MELHEM
A former telco mogul and Manly Sea-Eagles sponsor went from hobnobbing with rugby league players and big business players to bunking with fellow inmates after he was caught supplying drugs to undercover police.
OneFone co-founder Robert Melhem was sentenced to at least six years and three months’ imprisonment at Sydney District Court after he pleaded guilty to three counts of commercial drug supply including 2.9kg of cocaine, 4.9kg of ephedrine and 5kg of pseudoephedrine.
Prior to his arrest, Melhem sold an undercover officer just under 2kg of cocaine for $185,000 a kg following a meeting to arrange the deal at Krispy Kreme in Mascot.
The prison greens are a far cry from Melhem’s previously star-studded life, in which he hosted a lavish party at his harbourside mansion to celebrate former Manly star Brett Stewart being found not guilty of an alleged sexual assault in 2010.
Melhem was the co-founder of OneFone, one of OneTel’s largest connection providers, and later in his career diversified into property development.
EAMON MULGREW
Eamon Mulgrew might have outwardly seemed like a chiselled-jawed underwear model and bodybuilder – but beneath the pretty surface he was a feared gang chapter president completely entangled in greater Sydney’s bikie scene.
Lower Mountains Finks president Mulgrew, vice president and Brent McCaffrey and sergeant-at-arms Mitchell McPhail were charged over a wild attempted extortion against a pawn shop owner in which they threatened to burn his shop down.
A court heard the trio threatened the owner of Cashline Pawnbrokers in Riverstone in their efforts to acquire bikie chains and jewellery cashed in by a departing member who was trying to pay his way out of the gang.
Pictures reveal Mulgrew’s bizarre transformation from muscled man to a suburban bikie outfitted in Finks gear which was subsequently seized by police.
In September 2021 at Blacktown Local Court, McCaffrey pleaded guilty to demanding property in company with menaces and intent to steal, intimidation, participating in a criminal group, not keeping a firearm safely and possessing an unregistered firearm and a shortened firearm.
He was sentenced to a 15-month intensive corrections order.
McPhail and Mulgrew also pleaded guilty to similar charges and were handed one-year intensive correction orders.
The magistrate also ordered the pair no longer associate with each other or anyone linked to the Finks – effectively cutting them off from their former gang.
TATE WARD AND BENJAMIN MAIN
Two high-ranking Finks bikies flaunted their gang affiliations proudly on social media before they were dragged to court charged over a vicious pub fight.
Ex-president of the Finks’ Hunter Valley chapter Tate Desmond Ward, 33, enlisted high profile lawyer Bryan Wrench – favoured heavily by celebrities – when he pleaded guilty to affray over a violent attack at the Royal Federal Hotel in Branxton in December 2020.
Ward and fellow Fink Benjamin Main got involved in a scrap while security had their back turned in which Ward punched one victim and smashed his head into a wooden bench.
The court heard the pair were wearing their preferred Finks gear at the time and were identified in CCTV footage.
Ward was sentenced to a 12-month intensive corrections order, while Main received the same sentence on appeal after he was originally sentenced to 16 months’ imprisonment.
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