The Snitch: NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Jeff Loy has car stolen

Of all the cars to steal, thieves in the Sutherland Shire have unwittingly stolen NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Jeff Loy unmarked police 4WD – with flashing blue and red lights on the dashboard included.

• COVID-19 strands cocaine dealer in Sydney’s Silverwater Jail
• NSW courts resemble Mad Max amid COVID-19 restrictions

Of all the cars in the street to pinch, a thief has knocked off a four-wheel drive from one of NSW’s most senior police officers.

The Snitch has learned Deputy Commissioner Jeff Loy walked out his front door in Sydney’s south last weekend and found his work car was gone.

Fortunately, there was no weapon inside the unmarked NSW Police 4WD but Mr Loy, affectionately referred to as the cop’s cop, is now missing a few items of clothing.

It is understood several cars in Mr Loy’s street were targeted on the same night.

Deputy Commissioner Jeff Loy has had his unmarked police 4WD stolen at his home in the Sutherland Shire. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

Given the over population of police officers in The Shire, the odds of coming across a law enforcement vehicle were good.

The vehicle hasn’t turned up in a smouldering heap on a backstreet or been traded in for scraps yet (as far as our sources know).

And given an unmarked police car’s unique internal features – like flashing blue and red lights on the dashboard – it would be hard to dispose of the vehicle discreetly.

HAMZY TO APPEAL ‘SPEAK ENGLISH’ DECISION

Crime lord Bassam Hamzy’s seemingly endless legal battle against authorities to improve his living conditions behind bars is set to continue.

Hamzy lost a lengthy case in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday that saw him banned from communicating in Arabic to his family.

MORE NEWS:

What life will be like when we start socialising again

COVID-19 back to school: All you need to know

He also lost on all the other points he was challenging, which included that his lawyers have to undergo a criminal record check every 12 months before they can visit him at Goulburn’s Supermax Prison.

Founder of the Brothers For Life street gang Bassam Hamzy.

Prison authorities can also listen in on his calls with lawyers, which were previously protected by legal privilege.

Justice Geoff Bellew tossed all of Hamzy’s arguments.

But, now we are told by Hamzy’s lawyer Zali Burrows that he has lodged a notice of intention to appeal all of the points.

“Inmates in Guantánamo Bay have more rights,” Ms Burrows said.

Hamzy’s ability to argue on the legal privilege point will likely hand on the fate of case relating to one of his ex lawyers, Martin Churchill.

Churchill, a Sydney based lawyer, is facing charges of abusing privileged legal communications to help run Hamzy’s drug empire.

DON’T FEAR THE BAR ASSOCIATION

The NSW Bar Association’s newsletter is gaining a reputation of being something of a grim reaper of late.

They keep killing people who aren’t dead.

News broke this week that the Bar Association’s newsletter announced the sad passing of former NSW Supreme Court judge John Purdy Bryson QC.

The only problem was Justice Bryson is still very much alive.

Now we could forgive this, but it’s the second time the Bar’s newsletter has wrongly killed off a member of the legal fraternity in recent memory.

In July 2015, it announced the sad passing of former District Court judge Jimmy Conomos for the same result — he’s wasn’t dead either.

In their defence, the Bar’s newsletter resurrected Mr Conomos hours later in the form of a correction.

Now we understand that the legal fraternity is made up mostly of old blokes, so it’s a pretty safe bet that they are either dead or close to it. But how about a phone call next time?

QUARANTINE ARREST

A quarantined traveller paid homage to the age-old phrase you can run but you can’t hide this week.

He had quietly slipped back into Sydney in between tens of thousands of other Australians forced to return home due to COVID-19 recently.

The man in question spent 14 days in mandatory quarantine at the Holiday Inn in Kings Cross.

He kept a low profile until 12.01am on Thursday, when the quarantine period ended and he bolted for freedom.

Unbeknown to the intrepid traveller, his arrival back in Australia had alerted police to an outstanding arrest warrant.

Waiting in the foyer of the hotel were a couple of officers ready to check him out of one confined space into another.

GOT A SNITCH? Contact [e-mail] or [e-mail]