The Snitch: Tongan Sam’s son Nimilote Ngata guilty of Mercedes theft
The son of John Ibrahim’s long-time bodyguard Tongan Sam has been brought undone by a pair of thongs and a shopping bag in relation to the theft of a Mercedes CLK. It’s all in the Snitch.
Police & Courts
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The son of Ibrahim family bodyguard Tongan Sam has been brought undone in a car theft case by a pair of thongs and a shopping bag.
Yep, a pair of triple pluggers and a plastic Foot Locker bag were the key piece of evidence in a case that will now see Nimilote “Nim” Ngata sentenced over the theft of a Mercedes CLK from the northern beaches suburb of Seaforth.
The key to the car was stolen from inside a $12 million mansion on Seaforth Ave, with the car then pinched from outside the home just before 6am on April 28 last year, according to documents tendered in Central Local Court where Ngata, 34, appeared on Friday.
On June 3, police found the car on Richardson St, Merrylands. It had stolen plates attached but the vehicle identification number matched that of the luxury car stolen from Seaforth, the documents said.
Police searched the Mercedes and among food and shampoo containers littered around the car, they found a pair of size 13 Havaianas thongs.
Next to the thongs were a Foot Locker bag and a receipt for a pair of Nikes that were purchased at Foot Locker in Merrylands at 5.09pm on May 21.
Quick-thinking police went to the store and viewed CCTV footage of the time of purchase.
It showed Ngata walking into the store wearing the thongs, the documents said.
He then walked out of the shop wearing a pair of black Nikes while carrying a Foot Locker bag.
When police arrested Ngata in Kings Cross on May 26, he was wearing the Nikes from the CCTV footage, the documents stated.
In court, Ngata’s lawyer Brett Galloway asked Magistrate Robert Williams for the sentencing hearing to be conducted on May 2 at Parramatta Local Court.
When contacted, Mr Galloway said: “My client mistook the Mercedes for his mate’s Holden.”
Nim’s father, Semi “Tongan Sam” Ngata, is the towering figure who famously worked for decades as the bodyguard to Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim.
Nim was released from jail in 2020 after being sentenced for drug possession, assault, affray and drink-driving.
In February 2018, he was dropped at Coffs Harbour Health Campus with shotgun wounds.
Peter Shane Andrew Maryvale was sentenced to three years and seven months jail over the shooting.
Unreal estate
Would you buy a house from Nasser Kalache?
If you missed it this week, he’s the Fairfield real estate agent who was charged with using rental houses to grow $2 million worth of cannabis and ripping off the government’s Covid support scheme to the tune of $700,000. Prior to his real estate career, Kalache made as living as a tow truck driver plus several other cash-in-hand forms of employment.
We wanted to tell you more, but Snitch’s lawyers have rightly recommended against doing so given his ongoing court case. Kalache was refused bail in Fairfield Local Court this week with his lawyers indicating that he will fight the charges.
But the charges raise two questions.
The first being, how on earth did Kalache qualify for the state government to give him a real estate licence?
The NSW Department of Customer Service did not respond to Snitch’s questions asking exactly this. Instead, a spokesman waited until 5pm on Friday to issue a non-response. This is usually code for a government department knowing it messed up.
There are two licences listed for Kalache on the department’s website.
The first was granted in March 2020 and allowed the user to act as an “assistant real estate agent” who could only sell under the supervision of a fully licensed agent. So did Kalache actually sell houses?
The ever-reliable internet says yes. Kalache worked for Fairfield’s RW Partners.
And, according to the agency’s website, which was taken down this week thanks to an apparent “server error”, Kalache had sold nine properties in the past 12 months at a median price of $1.06 million. Snitch is guessing he made them a compelling sales pitch.
Belle of the (foot) ball
Who says High Court judges don’t know how to party?
The NSW legal fraternity’s Bench and Bar dinner took place on Friday for the first time since 2019 (thanks Covid).
And recently retired High Court Justice Virginia Bell brought the house down with her anecdote about how she and two “septuagenarian friends” managed to get on Channel 9’s live rugby league broadcast dressed in full Rabbitohs’ regalia.
Justice Bell prefaced her speech by explaining that retired High Court justices are reminded not to partake in “unjudicial conduct” in their post-bench lives.
Which brought her to the point of the story: it’s sometimes an effort to comply with these weighty expectations.
The lifelong Rabbitohs fan told how she and a group of friends decided to take in the match day festivities at Redfern Park last year just after Covid restrictions were relaxed.
Police, ABC and Channel 9 were there onsite expecting some rowdy fans to turn up.
But Justice Bell and her friends were the only ones in attendance, arriving after a few sensible champagnes and dressed in the cardinal and myrtle.
They looked the part, so Nine filmed Justice Bell and her friends and used the footage in their live broadcast of the match on TV.
GOT A SNITCH? Contact brenden.hills@news.com.au
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