The Snitch: Prison officers’ near brawl over coffee at Shortland Correctional Centre

Normally it's the prison officers having to keep things under control, but at Shortland Correctional Centre two guards had to be separated in a debate over the temperature of a cup of coffee.

Brawls in prison are usually sparked by issues such as battles for power or similarly dangerous issues.

But this one at Shortland Correctional Centre last Friday broke out over the sensitive issue of coffee.

And it wasn’t the prisoners at the centre of it either.

Two prison officers went nose to nose over whether inmates should be allowed to carry around cups containing hot coffee inside the Cessnock jail.

The younger officer argued it was dangerous for inmates to be walking around with “loaded” coffee cups.

Prison officers face off over the temperature of coffee. Picture: Supplied

He believed it was potentially dangerous and that one might decide to throw a scalding cup of coffee at an inmate.

The senior officer disagreed. We’re told he thought there was no reason the inmates should be prevented from walking around with coffee.

The argument got heated to the point where the pair went for the full Hulk Hogan-Andre the Giant face-off.

No punches were thrown and the incident ended shortly after.

Superiors stepped in and the issue was then settled via mediation.

But that has got a few noses out of joint among the troops in the prison.

One prison source said many officers were angered at the so-called soft approach taken to settle the issue.

Their problem stems from a perception that if there were two lowly-ranked officers involved that one of them would have been subjected to tougher discipline rather than a mediation session.

CRAIG V BIKIES

An inmate who was also allegedly ripped off alongside former NRL star Jarryd Hayne received an interesting offer from their bank after they attempted to dispute the transfer of the money.

The senior bikie was also serving time inside Cooma jail when he claims to have been conned out of more than $100,000 by convicted fraud Ishan Seenar Sappideen.

The bikie’s family transferred the money from their NAB account in 2022 on the alleged promise of a big return from a property deal by Sappideen.

A senior bikie claims to have been conned out of more than $100k by Ishan Sappideen Picture: Rohan Kelly. NSW / Crime

But they lodged a disputed transaction after it became apparent that there allegedly was no property deal and their money had vanished.

The bank explained in an email that it was “not able to cancel or reverse a transaction once it has been submitted”.

The email further explained that “NAB are not liable for the funds” because they were transferred at the request of the bikie’s family.

However, they did come back with a counter-offer.

“As a gesture of goodwill to yourself as a valued customer, NAB is prepared to offer you $4000 in full and final resolution of your dispute,” the email said.

The email concluded that the offer had an expiration date. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given who was receiving the email, the NAB employee did not put their surname on the email and signed off only as “Craig”.

ANOTHER FASHION TAKE-DOWN

The police practice for making arrests at ungodly hours of the morning always returns interesting results when it comes to arrest pictures.

From barely-there underpants to embarrassingly pink bathrobes, there are photographs of crooks being yanked out of homes in all manner of unsightly clobber.

One famous example included a member of the Rebels bikie gang being led out of his Bringelly home in 2014 in an unflattering yellow singlet after being arrested over a shooting.

We saw a noteworthy example of this practice in recent times involving a particularly embarrassing medical procedure.

A Rebels bikie gang member being led out of his home in an unflattering yellow singlet.

But the target of the police arrest cannot be identified, or even pictured, because a court has suppressed his identity.

We texted one detective to ask whether it was a deliberate tactic to unsettle their targets. He replied: “Hahahaha.”

Turns out it’s a happy by-product of a technique that is effective because most police arrest targets who are asleep at that time of the day and therefore easier to find.

COURT IS LEAKING

The wheels of justice stop for nothing – except a “major plumbing event”, according to a NSW Supreme Court spokesman.

The highest court in NSW has been thrown into chaos thanks to major flooding that has resulted in cases having to be moved from the Queens Square building.

And it seems the problems are set to continue.

A week ago, the court sent out a missive notifying members of the media and legal fraternity

“All members of the legal profession are advised that the Law Courts Building in Queens Square has suffered another major flooding event due to a broken pipe on level 19 affecting all floors in the building,” the spokesman said.

Chief Justice Andrew Bell had to divert cases to Darlinghurst and Hospital Rd and elsewhere. The Federal Court, which shares the building, was forced to cancel all “in-person” hearings.

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