The Snitch: Bikie sues Ishan Sappideen over alleged jail cons

Is Jarryd Hayne’s stolen money one step closer to being recovered? What now for a troubled Sydney pub boss? And what questionable calls had a series of judges blowing up? The Snitch is here.

The walls are closing in on the gifted con artist who allegedly convinced Jarryd Hayne and a growing number of other inmates to hand over millions.

A bikie, who can’t legally be named, has launched a civil case against Ishan Sappideen in the District Court.

The bikie’s lawyer Mark Carmody filed the claim on February 7 and it is going after Sappideen for $100,000.

Sappideen’s mother is listed as the second defendant while an accountant firm has also been listed as the third.

The claim centres around an allegation that Sappideen – who was doing time for a multimillion dollar fraud – convinced the bikie to hand over a six-figure sum that he would invest for him.

Jarryd Hayne. Picture: Richard Walker

It was in Cooma, the same prison where Sappideen has been accused of dudding Hayne for almost $800,000.

The big mystery is where the money went and the channels outside prison that Sappideen allegedly used.

On a side note to tick a defamation box, Jarryd Hayne always maintained his innocence against rape allegations and prosecutors discontinued his case.

Stay tuned.

NEW ADGEMIS DRAMAS

There is yet more trouble for Jon Adgemis as his bid to topple Justin Hemmes as Sydney’s top hospitality boss continues to go down in a screaming heap.

Jon Adgemis. Picture: Supplied

The latest instalment is that bankruptcy proceedings have been launched against Adgemis in the Federal Court of Australia by Paul Schlute.

Schlute’s company, Schlute Investments, filed the bankruptcy claim against Adgemis on Wednesday.

The financial details of what Schlute had been pursuing are yet to be revealed.

Adgemis was a former KPMG deal-maker who borrowed big to make his mark in the pub game.

But the move now teeters on disaster with multiple lenders calling in massive debts.

He is also being pursued for bankruptcy by rag trader Richard Gazal over a debt that the court heard was worth $26 million.

JUDGE BLOW UP

A District Court judge has called out a decision to abandon a rape trial the same week it was due to begin.

Judge Graeme Turnbull SC told Penrith District Court on Friday he was “appalled” at the decision to no bill charges against Paul Whitelaw. Whitelaw was accused of raping a woman in 2023.

Judge Turnbull noted there were “no reasons” given by prosecuting lawyers. He also told the court he was holding back on his statements to ensure he didn’t have the state’s chief prosecutor Sally Dowling SC lodge a complaint against him.

PLEASE EXPLAIN

There was more trouble for Sally Dowling this week with judges from the state’s highest criminal court bashing her office over a legal move that saw a $4 million fraudster get less jail time.

The judges from the Court of Criminal Appeal blasted the prosecuting lawyer’s call in the case of Dene Roulstone to allow 12 of his 16 charges go on what’s called a Form 1. Roughly, a Form 1 is where the less serious charges are only taken into account when a person is sentenced for a more serious offence. But in Roulstone’s case, this meant Roulstone was only being sentenced for stealing $1.3m.

And it resulted in a situation where the sentence given to Roulstone in District Court was too high for the number of offences he pleaded guilty to that were not on the Form 1.

It resulted in an appeal and the sentence being reduced by one year to six years and six months in the CCA on Friday.

Justice David Davies told the court it was “difficult to understand” the move.

“Counsel for the Crown … could offer no explanation.”

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