The Baddest: The dangerous orbit of Reynold Glover
One police officer never gave up in his pursuit of Sydney’s baddest man, even after suffering the heartbreak of a bombshell court loss.
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Reynold Glover’s orbit is a dangerous place to inhabit. These are the people who have been in it.
There’s the cop who has all but dedicated his career to putting Glover behind bars.
Then there’s the husband and wife defence lawyers tasked with sitting at a table with Glover and telling him news he doesn’t want to hear.
On the criminal side, there’s the crew of 20-somethings Glover was running with in the late 2000s that police allege stole sports cars and used them to make off with $6 million.
Then there’s the high-level drug dealer who dobbed them into the cops and will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
On his journey through the underworld, Glover has made high level criminal allies. A jail visit to one of them changed the course of his life.
He has also made equally dangerous enemies, such as crime boss Bassam Hamzy and his family.
THE CROOK
Name: Reynold Glover
DOB: March 29, 1986
Glover has been responsible for some of the most notorious crimes ever committed in Sydney.
Charged with murder at age 12, he eventually pleaded guilty to robbery in company when the more serious charge was dropped.
He later waged a one-man war on the Hamzy family after they stood over his mother.
Glover committed an armed hold-up in front of shocked city commuters the day he was also fronted court for yet another case.
A jury found him not guilty of committing high-adrenaline robberies where $6 million was stolen from cash in transit vans by robbers with assault rifles and stolen sports cars.
He was later jailed for committing perjury in the $6 million armed robbery trial.
He also threatened the star witness in his own case, threatened another witness in the murder case of a feared gangster, and was jailed for both acts.
Glover then planned jailed breaks for himself and others and set his jail cell on fire at Goulburn’s Supermax.
He doesn’t drink or take drugs and pumps out 800 push-ups a day.
Glover’s identity has been suppressed for about a decade.
He experiences revenge fantasies and keeps a get-square list sorted between people he wants to kill and people he plans to injure.
He once said he lives his life according to the title of rapper 50 Cent’s 2003 album Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
THE COP
Name: Justin Murray
Murray is the detective who refused to give up pursuing Glover and his associates, despite suffered the heartbreak of watching Glover and three others walk after they were found not guilty of making off with $6 million in a series of daring heists on cash in transit vans.
Like a dog with a bone, Det Murray never gave up the chase and has either been the lead investigator or assisted on cases involving Glover and his associates ever since.
He has recovered to win the long game and Glover is now serving about 30 years jail as a maximum sentence as a result.
Cops and prosecutors love Murray. Crims don’t.
“He’s an old school copper who is actually interested in doing the job rather than climbing the political ladder,” defence lawyer Paul McGirr, who previously worked as a cop with Det Murray, said.
“But there’s nothing better than beating Murray in court.”
THE LAWYERS
Names: Simon Joyner and Tanya Joyner
Rarely — if ever — do two lawyers from the same family represent someone as dangerous as Reynold Glover.
But that’s how Glover’s final armed robbery trial went down when he was represented by husband and wife lawyers Tanya and Simon Joyner.
Mr Joyner, a former boxer, is now one of Australia’s highest profile criminal lawyers and has experience dealing with criminals on Glover’s level, including terrorist Khaled Sharrouf, Brothers For Life gang leader Farhad Qaumi, Penthouse Pet turned drug smuggler Simone Farrow, and ex Olympic kayaker turned drug dealer Nathan Baggaley.
A family law specialist, Ms Joyner acted in Glover’s Broadway robbery trial as her first criminal case and spent a period dropping kids at school before sitting down for legal conferences with him.
“I was fully confident in her ability because she is the most efficient and diligent lawyer I know,” Mr Joyner said.
Mr Joyner took over after his wife could no longer act and won an appeal against Glover’s perjury sentence.
It led to prosecutors dropping their attempt to have Glover and co stand trial for a second time over the $6 million armed robberies.
ENEMIES
Name: Mr X
DOB: Suppressed
Mr X’s personal details are suppressed by court order.
He is a big-time drug dealer who had his sentence reduced after telling cops he would give evidence against Glover and co in the $6 million robbery trial.
He also got immunity for the armed robberies they were charged with and left the cops with egg on their faces when team Glover was found not guilty on all charges.
However he copped three years jail for possessing 1kg of heroin and possessing weapons and explosives.
Name: Bassam Hamzy
Born: 1979
Hamzy is the feared boss of a Sydney crime family who was targeted by Glover.
He is currently serving 40 years for murder.
Hamzy refused to pull his cousin Bilal into line after he stood over Glover’s mother for $5000.
Glover shot one of Hamzy’s family members in retaliation while looking for the cousin and the pair punched-on in jail.
Glover still considered Hamzy to be a “gentleman” but waged a one-man war out of principle.
Name: Bilal Hamze
Born: 1987. Died: June 17, 2021
Stood over Reynold Glover’s mother for $5000, which sparked a war between Glover and the wider family of crime boss Bassam Hamzy.
The brawl peaked when Glover wanted to shoot Bilal Hamze but ended up putting 31 bullets through a front door, eight of which hit his mother.
Hamze was shot dead in Sydney’s CBD as he left a restaurant with his girlfriend.
Glover was not charged over the shooting and there is no suggestion he committed the crime.
CRIMINAL ASSOCIATES
Name: Omar Haouchar
Born: August 10, 1992
Omar is the younger brother of Western Sydney crime figure Bilal Haouchar.
In 2013, Omar was positioning himself to be Reynold Glover’s protege and do his apprenticeship in armed robbery.
Reynold took him along to a botched robbery of an Armaguard truck outside Broadway Shopping Centre in 2013.
Omar had trouble keeping his mouth shut about it and was caught on multiple secret police recording devices confessing.
He was sentenced to 10 years jail.
Name: Bilal Haouchar
Born: July 23, 1986
Bilal is one of Australia’s most feared and wanted men, who fled to Lebanon after police had him clocked as a person of interest in a number of murders.
He was in Lithgow jail in 2013 when Reynold Glover made an ill fated decision to pay him a visit and tell him about a number of crimes — a conversation that police recorded with a hidden device.
He convinced Glover to take on his younger brother Omar as a criminal apprentice.
In the time he has spent in prison, Haouchar has been classified as a high-risk inmate.
He has a surprisingly short criminal record but his in-prison record, though not resulting in criminal charges, stretches to three pages for 42 infractions, including fighting and intimidating guards.
He hates the Ibrahim family and was secretly recorded plotting to have brothers Michael and Sam shot while he was behind bars.
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