Michael Odisho, Ahmed Hoblos jailed for perverting justice in Sydney shooting case

It took seven years but gangster Michael Odisho and an associate have been jailed for perverting justice after falsifying court evidence about a cocaine-driven shooting.

Two Sydney gangsters have been locked up after a seven-year saga involving a cocaine-fuelled shooting, a paid-off victim and dodgied-up evidence designed to derail justice.

Inked-up underworld figure Michael Odisho was convicted on gun and wounding charges after a fellow gangster was shot for going on a cocaine binge with the drugs he hadn’t paid for.

Odisho had loaded the gun and handed it to the shooter who carried out the bloody act of discipline in 2013.

But when the victim took the stand at Odisho’s 2016 trial he said: “Michael’s got nothing to do with nothing,” and said Odisho wasn’t even present when the three bullets ripped through his legs.

Michael Odisho outside court in 2015.

Odisho was convicted and given at least five years and eight months in prison despite the victim backflipping on earlier evidence.

Police alleged the shot gangster had been paid off.

But Odisho did not accept the verdict and, from prison, launched an appeal and organised with an associate to get a false document before the judges.

The NSW District Court, on Friday, heard prison guards intercepted a letter from Ahmed Hoblos, who was hanging around the gang on the night of the shooting.

“This bloke is about to change his mind and retreat on his statement if you don’t pay up,” the letter to Odisho read.

“I‘m doing you a favour and one that makes a difference.”

It was just weeks before the appeal in 2017, where Odisho’s lawyers would argue he was only locked up because of a “miscarriage of justice”.

Police then uncovered a plan to pay Hoblos a small fortune to swear a false affidavit that further preached Odisho’s innocence.

“(In the affidavit) Mr Hoblos asserts he was never asked by police to make a statement,” Judge Peter Zahra said on Friday.

“The agreement he entered into with Odisho was to provide a false affidavit. It was to be used in Mr Odisho‘s appeal and he intended to pervert the course of justice.”

The court heard the men knew they were trying to pervert the courts and the crime “strikes at the heart of the justice system”.

After seven years, two trials, an appeal and a 12-month pandemic delay, the jig is finally up — Hoblos and Odisho were both found guilty.

Odisho will serve seven years in prison, with an earliest release date on parole in February 2025.

He threw his hands up in exasperation before the videolink to court was muted.

Hoblos will do at least two years in prison, and will be eligible for parole mid-next year.