The Snitch: Neighbour of tennis legend Pat Rafter targeted by gangsters

Tennis legend Pat Rafter’s home has been used as a bizarre reference point in a gangster-related incident. Also we are about to discover if AN0M evidence will be ruled admissible in court. Don’t miss The Snitch.

Pat Rafter’s neighbourhood was targeted ina gang-related incident. Picture: Glenn Hunt/Getty Images for Tennis Australia

The neighbourhood that tennis superstar Pat Rafter called home was almost the centre of a, shall we say, gangster-related incident in recent times.

Rafter wasn’t the one being targeted and had nothing to do with the dispute.

Instead, someone in the neighbourhood had done a deal with a number of crooked businessmen that was in the vicinity of about $5m.

The only problem was the deal didn’t go according to the wishes of the businessmen and they were having discussions about sending gangsters around to see the bloke.

Snitch became aware of the info after details of a conversation were set out in an unrelated court case. We’ll have to wait for a number of cases to conclude before we can reveal who they are.

But they were of the belief that the man in Rafter’s neighbourhood had dudded them on a significant sized deal and they were discussing strategies on how deal with the man.

And to describe where the man lived, one of the businessmen used Rafter’s home as a reference point.

“I know where he lives now,” one of the businessmen told his partners.

One of the partners then suggested sending their gangster connected mate around to pay the man a visit. While this was being discussed, the businessman wondered: “Do you reckon there’s cash there? Is that what you’re saying?”

We won’t reveal the location of the home for obvious reasons.

YUMI IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The court battle between TV personality Yumi Stynes and her ex Martin Bendeler is set to be a contested affair, it was revealed in court this week.

We know this because of the number of witnesses that Bendeler’s lawyer told the Downing Center Local Court he would be calling to defend his case.

Just one: Stynes.

It all adds up to Stynes’ version of events being tested from the witness box, which can be a confrontational process.

Yumi Stynes’s court battle will be a contested affair. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Joel Carrett

Police applied for an apprehended violence order on Stynes’ behalf against Bendeler late last year after their pair’s split turned nasty. They were granted an interim AVO with standard terms while the court prepares to hear the evidence and whether the order should be made on a more permanent basis.

It’s not suggested there was any physical violence between the pair, but Stynes complained about an excessive number of messages, and Bendeler’s alleged unpredictable behaviour.

On Wednesday, Magistrate Michael Barko was told that both parties had filed outlines of their evidence for the case. The matter was listed for hearing in the Downing Centre Local Court on September 28.

AN0M D-DAY LOOMING

We got one step closer to finding out whether the evidence in the so-called “Sting of the Century” cases will go ahead or be ruled inadmissable.

The evidence is the messages collected by the AFP when they duped a huge number of now-accused crooks to use supposedly encrypted phones where the messages were being sent straight back to the cops.

A group called the AN0M-50 has challenged the legality of the evidence. They are hoping the platform used to collect the messages was not legally covered by the police warrant.

If they win, the messages will be excluded as evidence and a massive amount of court cases will fall over.

At present the prosecution and defence lawyers have agreed on a number of witnesses – including technology experts who can tell the court the ins and outs of the platform used to collect the messages.

But there are still a number of other witnesses and areas of cross examination to be agreed upon.

That now has to be sorted out before we get to the first designated hearing date on April 17.

There are a lot of people – police and accused crooks – who are sweating on the result of this case.

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