Apprentice electrician Michael Joseph Magat bailed over ‘muscle for hire’ gang shooting allegations

Police allege the group made one mistake after another in the botched plan, leading to multiple arrests and one hell of an embarrassing story.

An accused member of a “muscle for hire” gang who allegedly shot up a family home was busted by the cops after crashing his car and missing a pickup from an alleged getaway driver, a court has heard.

Police allege Amer Soliman opened fire on a group of residents standing out the front of a house on Seventeenth Avenue in Austral on July 25, 2024, peppering the home with nine bullets before speeding off in a stolen Hyundai i30.

But Soliman’s flight was short-lived, according to documents tendered to the NSW Supreme Court, with the Hyundai colliding with another vehicle after Soliman allegedly failed to give way at a nearby intersection.

CCTV allegedly shows Soliman and his passenger jump out of the car and flee on foot together before eventually splitting up as police flood the area.

Detectives canvas the outside of a house in Austral that was peppered with bullets in a drive-by shooting in July 2024.

Police recovered several spent cartridges from the scene, but no one was hurt.

A police sniffer dog later found Soliman hiding in nearby bushland.

According to court documents, police allege Soliman and his co-accused are members of a southwest Sydney “muscle” gang that hires itself out to organised crime figures to carry out shootings, home invasions, kidnapping and drug supply for money.

The identity of the crime figures behind this alleged hit is not known, police said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors allege 19-year-old apprentice sparkie Michael Joseph Santos Magat, had been tasked with staging a second vehicle that night for Soliman and his passenger to use as a getaway car.

In a series of secretly recorded phone calls, Magat can be heard telling a co-accused he followed the instructions given to him by two men he only knew as “Teflon” and “Kaos”, which supposedly involved leaving the car at a designated area, with the key inside.

Police released CCTV footage from a nearby house showing the alleged offenders fleeing the scene. Picture: NSW Police

However, police will allege Magat remained in the vehicle when he couldn’t get confirmation of the drop-off point from any of his superiors, then drove around the Austral area and made active attempts to locate Soliman and the passenger in a bid to help them escape from police.

“Bro, I don’t know where the f—k to find these c—ts,” Magat allegedly told the co-accused over the phone.

“Bro, this is too red hot …. there’s police everywhere, I’m not staying here.”

The co-accused can allegedly be overheard telling Magat to keep looking for the men.

Magat allegedly tells him “I’m trying to, there’s police left, right and centre, it’s not even funny”.

In a further conversation about 20 minutes later, Magat allegedly says “bro, I don’t know what to do … I cannot find these boys at all”.

According to court documents, the co-accused tells him to “keep trying”.

The court heard Magat was arrested in August 2024 and charged with participating in a criminal group, concealing a serious indictable offence of another and being an accessory before the fact to discharging a firearm with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Officers examine a piece of evidence on the ground outside the house.

Police allege the shooting was conducted by members of a ‘muscle for hire’ gang, being directed by an unknown organised crime group.

Magat was remanded in custody at the time but granted bail on a $250,000 surety during a recent application before the NSW Supreme Court.

As part of his bail, Magat must live with his parents, report to police daily and abide by a home detention condition.

Magat’s case will return to court this week.

Soliman, who is facing several charges including firing a firearm at a dwelling as part of organised criminal activity, will next appear in court on May 21.

Both men are only facing charges relating to the shooting and The Daily Telegraph does not suggest they have been charged with other criminal offences, despite the police alleging in court documents that they are part of a gang involved in widespread criminal activity.