Jail visit to a gangster that finally brought down fearless crim
Reynold Glover got lucky when a jury let him off charges over $6m of armed holdups — but then a secretly recorded video caught him out.
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Four months after Reynold Glover walked out of jail, he made a mistake that cost him almost 30 years behind bars.
Then 26-years-old and walking tall after being found not guilty in the $6 million armed robbery trial, Glover made two visits to one of NSW’s most notorious inmates at Lithgow Jail.
During the visits, Glover told his mate he shot a western Sydney gangster’s aunt and committed perjury while giving evidence in the $6 million armed robbery trial.
Glover also agreed to take on the inmate’s younger brother as a criminal apprentice to teach him how to commit armed robberies.
A few days later, Glover and his new protege held up a cash-in-transit van outside a bustling shopping centre on the edge of the Sydney CBD.
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Neither man realised that a police listening device — expertly hidden inside the jail’s visiting area — recorded every word they said.
A hidden camera also filmed the two men during the jail visits on February 24 and March 10 in 2013.
For Glover, the consequences from the explosive recordings were enormous.
Police charged him with attempted murder, perjury and armed robbery.
He was convicted on each of the charges and was sentenced to almost 30 years in jail as a maximum sentence.
The recordings were used as evidence in each of the court cases.
Glover’s perjury conviction also led to prosecutors making an attempt to force him to stand trial over the $6 million armed robberies for a second time.
Just as crucial for investigators, the recordings provided the police with valuable underworld gossip and insight into Glover’s mindset.
BREAKING OUT BILL
The man Glover was visiting was Bilal Haouchar, the leader of a feared western Sydney crime family.
Haouchar was in jail with his bail refused on charges relating to an underworld murder.
He has gone on to become one of Australia’s most wanted men after fleeing to Lebanon in 2018.
The recordings captured Glover planning an audacious — but ultimately aborted — plot to break Haouchar out of jail by ramming a prison truck outside Silverwater prison.
Glover told Haouchar to get himself brought to the jail for a conference with his lawyers.
“There’s a spot there … a driveway …,” Glover said. “Boom. Hit them front on … It’ll stop, trust me … they’ll shit themselves, man.”
The alternative was for Haouchar to be stabbed by his cellmate and that Glover would break him out of hospital.
“I WANT REVENGE”
During the visits, Glover had vengeance on his mind.
The cousin of crime boss Bassam Hamzy had stolen $5000 from Glover’s mother while he was in jail and unable to protect her.
Glover was also still burning about Mr X betraying him to become the star prosecution witness in the $6 million armed robbery trial.
“All I‘m worried about is getting money and then getting my revenge on them c**ts, and that’s it,” Glover said.
Glover also revealed other valuable insights into his criminal activities.
He was planning to murder one of his gang members for “talking shit” and had waited outside the man’s house three times in an attempt to shoot him.
Glover also said he had been recruited by a cashed up heavy hitter to steal 50 barrels of pseudoephedrine from a factory as part of an all-star cast of freelance criminals.
GETTING TO WORK
In the two weeks between his two visits to Haouchar, Glover was busy.
In just five of those days, Glover led a crew in a daring armed robbery and got revenge on Bassam Hamzy’s family.
The day after the shooting, Glover returned to the jail and told Haoucher: “F**k with my mum … Lucky I didn’t do worse.”
REVENGE FANTASIES
Glover’s emotions had been bubbling over while he was stuck in jail during the $6 million armed robbery trial.
He was unable to impose his will on the outside world. It was getting to him.
“I couldn‘t even get people bashed,” Glover said. “You know, I’d try to get people bashed … I couldn’t even get them bashed. I was like, giving up on everything.”
While he was in jail, Glover spent time thinking about his enemies.
“ … Every little thing that’s burnt me I’m getting revenge for, every single thing that’s burnt me,” Glover said.
“I’ve got a list of people. I’m gonna get them,” he said.
“Some people’s down the bottom of the list, some people’s up the top. Some people it’s only a kneecapping, some people it’s only in the stomach. Some peoples it’s dead.”
He also experienced “revenge fantasies” while in prison segregation.
“I used to sit there … burning, burning, burning,” Glover said. “When I got out it went down a bit less you know but, still, mate, I’m not letting no one (forget) …
“Just to make these guys feel my pain,” he said. “I’ve got nothing to prove to no one. I know all these c**ts are cowards.”
WHO’S ON REYNOLD’S REVENGE LIST?
The two main targets on Glover’s revenge list were Mr X and the cousin of Sydney crime boss Bassam Hamzy, Bilal Hamze.
Glover had initially been on friendly terms with Hamzy while the pair were in jail.
Relations soured after Glover asked Hamzy to have one of his minions — in this case it was cousin Hamze — extract a $20,000 debt from a person outside jail.
Glover called off the debt collection job but the crime lord’s cousin still wanted to be paid.
Hamze recouped his losses by squeezing $5000 out of Glover’s mother.
Glover was burning over Hamze’s actions and told Haouchar: “They don‘t know who I am …”
Hamzy was also now one of Glover’s targets because the crime boss didn’t order the money to be repaid to his mother and refused to pull his cousin into line.
Glover wrote the crime boss a letter that said: “I’m gonna shoot your cousin.”
Glover attempted to make good on that promise but instead shot Hamze’s mother, Maha Hamze, through her front door.
Before the shooting, Glover told Haouchar he wanted to kill anyone who was in the house.
“I don‘t care. Whoever’s there. Out of any group. If there’s ten of them there, I’m gonna just get (them),” Glover said.
Part of Glover’s motivation for revenge was as a show of strength in jail.
“People would be laughing behind my (back) … (Other prisoners) would say ‘Look at him, they stood over him for five grand and he‘s still talking to Bass’,” Glover said.
Despite this, Glover still respected Hamzy.
“He‘s a gentleman. I can’t say nothing bad about him myself,” Glover said.
“I said (to Hamzy) ‘There‘s no hard feeling towards ya’,” Glover said. “I said, ‘But … if you’re saying you’re gonna back your cousin … then we’ll have a go.’.
“ (Hamzy) goes ‘I’m not backin’ him, but I can’t let no one shoot my cousin. So if you‘re gonna shoot him then we’ll have a go’,” Glover said.
Glover made contact with Hamzy just before being released from prison.
“I thought ‘I‘d better write him a letter so he knows that it’s still not sweet’,” he said.
According to Glover, he told Hamzy: “We’re still gonna have a go when we go back to the Supermax.”
“ (Hamzy) goes ‘Yeah no worries brother. We’ll have a go. We‘ll go two out, we’ll punch on in the (prison) room.’,” Glover said.
After the shooting, Glover felt some remorse because the victim was Ms Hamze and not his intended target.
“At the women, it was a bit slack, even though I coulda done her too,” he said.
The feeling didn’t last long.
“F**k them, pieces of shit … I didn‘t start it,” Glover said.
“They’re lucky I didn’t knock their mum,” he said. “Any guy that was there … say if there were 10 boys there, we were knocking every single one of them.”
WHAT HAPPENED TO HAMZE?
Bilal Hamze was executed in a gangland shooting on June 17, 2021.
The 34-year-old was shot dead outside a Japanese restaurant in the Sydney CBD where he had just dined with his girlfriend.
Glover has not been charged over the murder and there is no suggestion he was involved.
MR X NEEDS TO FEEL SOME PAIN
The one person challenging for the top spot on Glover’s revenge list was Mr X.
By becoming the star prosecution witness in the $6 million armed robbery case, Glover blamed Mr X for him being locked up plus losing most of his wealth and waterfront apartment.
“Everything was going mad for me,” Glover said. “I had heaps of money. I had a car. I had moved into that flat. I had a new girlfriend. Everything was perfect.
“One dog’s word. He’s going to f**king pay,” Glover told Haouchar.
Mr X was in witness protection. Glover vowed to find him.
“I need f**ken’ revenge,” Glover said. “Just to make him feel the same pain … Trust me, he needs to pay, this c**t.”
ROBBERY LESSONS WITH REYNOLD
By the time he visited Haouchar, Glover was a self-styled armed robbery expert.
He had his eye on a multimillion-dollar score.
It was the hit on a cash truck outside Broadway Shopping Centre.
“Should be sweet for good, good cash,” Glover said. “At least minimum like, a million, $2 million. Maybe $5 (million) … but max five, six, minimum. If we do it, if we get, if we get it properly you know.”
Haouchar was keen for Glover to coach his younger brother Omar on how to rob a cash-in-transit van and said: “Make my brother your apprentice.”
Glover agreed and explained that he had armed hold ups down to a fine art.
“Trust me, I‘m a professional with that stuff,” he said.
He also had the tools for the job: a sports car with heavily tinted windows to conduct surveillance, and a police scanner radio that he bought for $22,000 to eavesdrop on the police movements.
He also told Haouchar the police radio made him a more efficient criminal.
“(Previously we would) sit in a car for four hours, waiting, doing everything, sitting there just waiting with no, with no scanner,” he said. “Imagine now with a scanner how easy it is?”
The other essential tool was a powerful sports car with stolen plates that “has to get burnt straight after it.”
If it came to it, Glover said he was prepared to have a shootout with police.
“If we can‘t beat ‘em, I’m gonna shoot ‘em.’,” Glover said.
GLOVER ADMITS TO PERJURY
During the $6 million armed robbery trial, Glover made the surprise move to give evidence and he blamed Mr X for committing the armed robberies.
It worked and helped a jury reach not guilty findings for Glover and his three co-accused.
But Glover revealed to Haouchar that he had told the jury a pack of lies and joked that he couldn’t believe they believed him.
“I thought I was gone,” Glover said.
Speaking through laughter, Glover told Haouchar he lied about Mr X’s criminal credentials.
“(The) bloke’s never done a robbery in his life,” Glover said.
“(I told the jury) (Mr X came to my unit and) gave me the story he was on the run for Armaguard robberies and all this stuff. That’s what I said in the box …,” Glover said.
“They reckon I saved the case,” Glover said.
Adding to the case for perjury was the fact that Glover told Haouchar he had actually been very flush with cash.
Glover complained that he “had $1.2 million when I went into jail and I’m coming out now with f. king four hundred (to) three hundred thousand.”
He said he invested $600,000 with a group of Asian people who “own a shop up the road from my house” and had been earning $8000 a month interest.
TAKE TWO ON THE ROBBERY TRIAL
Once Glover was convicted of perjury and sentenced to seven years jail in 2018, they launched an audacious bid to reverse the result in the $6 million armed robbery trial.
In February 2019, prosecuting lawyers launched a legal application to force Glover, Corey George Farrell, William Caldwell and Nathan Stuart to stand trial again over the robberies.
However, the application was abandoned in April 2020 after Glover’s lawyers, Simon Joyner and Ian McLachlan, had a partial win against his seven year jail sentence for perjury in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.
Glover is now set to be re-sentenced on the perjury conviction in November.
Farrell was also targeted by undercover police.
Two undercovers infiltrated Farrell and his girlfriend’s social circle to the point where they joined the couple on a 2013 holiday to the Crowne Plaza Resort in the Hunter Valley.
Police charged Farrell and alleged he revealed information that proved he was responsible for the armed robberies and had laundered the money through a North Sydney accountant.
The case went nowhere and the charges were withdrawn.
GLOVER’S LAST MOMENT OF FREEDOM
When Glover left the second jail visit with Haouchar on March 10, 2013, police were ready to strike.
Heavily armed Tactical Operations Police arrested Glover at his mother’s house at 10.05pm.
They sat him on the curb side where he was confronted by Detective Justin Murray.
“What’s this about, Murray?” Glover asked.
Det Murray responded: “Reynold, you’re under arrest in connection with the armoured truck armed robbery at Broadway on Monday. Do you understand that?”
Glover said “Yeah but there was no need for this”.
Inside police found the Glock pistol used to shoot Ms Hamze and Glover was later charged with attempted murder.
It was the last time Glover was a free man.
He caught up with Bassam Hamzy behind bars a week later.
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