‘Big’ Jim Byrnes charged over Julian Tobias fight

A one-time financial adviser to Alan Bond has been charged over an altercation at a Double Bay nightclub. The Snitch is here.

Almost 18 months after he allegedly got into a punch-up with bar boss Julian Tobias, larger than life Sydney businessman “Big” Jim Byrnes has been charged over the altercation.

Bynes and Tobias allegedly came to blows on the dancefloor inside Double Bay’s Bedouin nightclub (which is partly owned by Tobias) on Melbourne Cup Day in 2023.

It is understood the dust-up occurred after Byrnes dealt with a separate patron whom he allegedly witnessed touching a drunken and defenceless woman.

Tobias and Byrnes are then alleged to have come to blows.

Byrnes, a one time financial adviser to billionaire Alan Bond, is listed to face the Downing Centre Local Court on May 16 in answer to one count each of common assault and affray. Tobias is not charged with any wrongdoing.

“Big” Jim Byrnes.

We contacted Byrnes, who declined to comment other than to say “I’m a big believer in women’s rights” and that he received a court attendance notice “about two weeks ago”.

It supports the argument that you could never accuse Byrnes of living a dull life.

Julian Tobias.

In 2012, his Bellevue Hill mansion was shot up with Byrnes later accusing organised crime figures as being responsible.

His earlier exploits include being jailed for deemed heroin supply in the 1980s.

He also has a conviction for assaulting a bikie, has been acquitted of fraud charges and banned twice by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission from acting as a company director.

STANDEN’S GAMBLING HABITS

You’d think, given his decades as a very senior crime investigator, that corrupt cop Mark Standen would be good on the arithmetic front.

But here we are.

Standen, who served 16 years in jail over a pseudoephedrine smuggling attempt, holds the dubious distinction of being Australia’s most senior crime fighter to be sentenced for drug smuggling.

Mark Standen.

He gave his first on-camera interview to ABC’s Four Corners program in March and claimed the he was never involved in the 2008 import and was wrongly convicted.

The former senior investigator for the NSW Crime Commission and Australian Federal Police also rejected claims he made millions from drug smuggling.

Standen earned in the vicinity of $200,000 a year and Snitch’s contacts in the gambling industry say his expenditures simply doesn’t add up.

Take this from a former executive from one of Australia’s biggest gambling operations.

“I used to see the reports of who our biggest punters were and he was betting about $30,000 a week, every week, for a good couple of years,” the executive said.

“That’s the biggest betting cop in the country,” the exec said.

“And if you look at that from a bloke who’s earning $200,000 a year, he’s going to be outlaying a lot more than that on those figures,” the exec said.

Who was on top of the operation’s gambling list?

“Tony Mokbel”.

Those were the days.

END OF THE ROAD

A one time rising star of the Sydney criminal law fraternity has been banned from practising after getting involved in a bikie drug buy-up.

Alina Yousif was struck off the role of practising lawyers by the NSW Supreme Court last week after it found she was not a fit and proper person.

It came five years after she was sentenced for knowingly taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug over a pseudoephedrine buy-up being organised by her then boyfriend, Clinton Parkinson, who was linked to the Bandidos bikie gang.

Yousif was not a police target but got caught up in an investigation that was probing Parkinson’s attempt to buy up 55 grams of ice.

Alina Yousif.

Parkinson was sentenced to just over three years’ jail for knowingly taking part in drug supply.

Police secretly recorded Yousif counting money for the drug buy and also offering to withdraw $2000 from her own account to help fund it, court documents said.

They also captured her asking Parkinson “how much do you need to get up?”, to which he said $12,000 because “they’re giving me three ounces”.

She was also convicted of using a false document for forging a fake driver’s licence and letter from the Indian Consulate to obtain an unrestricted driver’s licence for Parkinson’s cousin.

Yousif argued she was in an abusive relationship with Parkinson at the time she committed the offences, which the three-judge panel in the NSW Supreme Court accepted.