Social media craze TikTok infiltrates NSW prison system
It’s the social media craze that this week got one of the NRL’s biggest stars in trouble with the police. But it seems the popularity of TikTok is so rife it has even infiltrated the state’s jails.
Police & Courts
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NRL star Nathan Cleary isn’t the only one getting in strife with the latest social media craze TikTok.
The video platform has also infiltrated the NSW prison system.
It was hardly everybody in the whole cell block but a clip of two inmates inside Lithgow’s maximum security prison was circulating social media last week and showed the cell buddies dancing in sync.
Choreographed routines are a TikTok speciality – just ask Cleary. His story about a group of girls dropping by for a quick photograph (and breaching social distancing) on April 25 was contradicted by a TikTok video showing him prancing around a lounge room in a dance troupe. Police didn’t fine Cleary but the NRL has hit him with a breach notice.
In the footage filmed inside Lithgow prison, the two inmates, who were both wearing face masks, finished their routine with a thumbs up at the mobile phone recording from a corner of the cell.
It appears at least one of them then shared the TikTok video on a contraband mobile phone.
When it surfaced on the internet it had the caption: “proud big sister they pulled it off”.
A NSW Corrective Services spokesman said authorities were aware of the video and raided cells as a result. “Three mobile phones were located and seized as a result of the search,” a spokesman said.
“Inmates will face disciplinary action.”
SCORELINE TIED
In sporting terms, the score in the liquidation of The Grounds cafe empire is currently tied at 1-all.
Score one for The Grounds’ boss Ramzey Choker and ex-boss Jack Hanna because the liquidators couldn’t convince the Australian Tax Office to foot the bill for a court style hearing to grill them over their management of the companies.
So unless someone else stumps up the cash, the hearing probably won’t happen.
But also score one for the liquidators because they are set to get paid in the six figure range for their efforts so far, thanks to a vote at a recent creditors meeting.
Four companies were used to run the bustling eateries, which include The Grounds of the City and The Grounds of Alexandria, until they were put into the hands of receivers late in 2018 after failing to pay $1.6 million in tax over three years.
However, the eateries continue to operate because their operations have been shifted to a different holding company, leaving the tax debt with the old companies.
In a report to creditors that was lodged with ASIC last month, liquidator Adam Shepard wrote that the ATO rejected his request to fund the hearings in April 2019.
The ATO said this was because “among other things, on the merit and prospects of success and recovery of the proposed investigation or action objective analysis of the benefits and risks.”
We sent this statement to the lab for translation and it means they reckon they won’t get a return on their investment.
Mr Shepard said that he would be pressing ahead with reporting Mr Choker and Mr Hanna to ASIC to be investigated for possible breaches of a range of corporate offences.
These include failing to maintain adequate books and records and insolvent trading.
Bring on the second half.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
We’ll call it short term pain for long term gain.
Sydney drug dealer Mostafa Dib got some time knocked off his sentence this week because he got tortured by police in Dubai after his arrest in the Middle East in 2016.
Dib was sentenced to a maximum 18 years in the Downing Centre District Court this week for his role in an 800kg drug smuggling plot with Michael Ibrahim and others. But it could have been slightly longer if not for the overly keen cops in Dubai.
The court heard Dib was tasered 10 times after his arrest despite being cooperative.
His shoulder also “popped out” due to rough handing by the Dubai authorities, the court heard.
He also reported that he was denied legal assistance and forced to sign documents that he didn’t understand because they were written in another language.
In court, Judge Dina Yehia said: “I have taken into account extra-curial punishment in fixing the appropriate sentence.”
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Remember a time when you could go outside and there was a chance that someone from a high-standing profession could be photographed in a compromising position?
Those were great days.
That said, here is a photo of guess which Sydney lawyer partying it up with a seven-foot-tall friend during a holiday over the most recent Christmas holidays.
When contacted, the lawyer said: “I had the time of my life. Maybe we went on a nightclub tour, but I must confess my memory is hazy.”
Our investigations uncovered that the taller person in the photo is an entertainer of note at Miami nightclubs who is of course known as TP Lords.
TP being short for Total Package. Snitch has suppressed the lawyer’s identity but couldn’t help running the photo.
Got a snitch? Contact
Ava.benny-morrison@news.com.au or Brenden.hills@news.com.au