Underworld standover thug Brendan ‘Benny’ Bradshaw pleads guilty to Melbourne cocaine racket
A Sydney-based underworld thug and former RAN sailor who bashed a man during a Melbourne strip club extortion has been sunk for dealing cocaine.
Inner South
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A former Royal Australian Navy sailor linked to the top of Sydney’s criminal underworld has been sunk for a high-rise cocaine racket.
Brendan ‘Benny’ Bradshaw, 53, pleaded guilty at the County Court on Thursday to trafficking cocaine.
Bradshaw was nabbed with drugs after police raided his city apartment on June 14 last year.
Australian Federal Police members, who also searched two vehicles linked to Bradshaw’s Mackenzie St apartment complex, seized multiple devices.
The court heard Bradshaw refused to grant authorities access to his devices including two champagne coloured iPhones.
Bradshaw, on remand at Barwon, also claimed he didn’t know who owned several of the phones found at his apartment.
The AFP, with the help of the dog squad, discovered and seized clip-sealed bags of cocaine and scales stashed behind the microwave.
Police also discovered vials of anabolic steroids and testosterone found throughout the apartment.
Bradshaw, who also pleaded guilty to drug possession, was caught with more than 200 grams of coke, about 1000 empty deal bags and cannabis.
The court heard Bradshaw has multiple criminal priors including a major NSW drug trafficking rap from 2013.
The thug dad was also jailed for a viscous 2018 Melbourne strip club standover attack.
Bradshaw was sentenced at the County Court in December 2019 to four years jail with a minimum 32-month jail term after pleading guilty to extortion and intentionally cause injury.
Bradshaw teamed with Russian-born drug dealer Genna Schvarts to assault the former owner of Exotica Gentleman’s Lounge in May 2018.
A jailed Sydney drug crime lord also allegedly took part in the extortion.
Schvarts, the victim and two other men were partners in the King St strip club until the relationship turned “problematic”, the court was told
Bradshaw and the drug lord flew in from Sydney to purchase the victim’s 50 per cent share of the $700,000 business.
Bradshaw and the kingpin offered the victim an “optimistic” $50,000 or they would “injure him” if he didn’t take the deal.
Bradshaw, Schvarts and the kingpin met the victim at Exotica for a tour of the venue before the offer was made and flatly rejected.
“OK Genna, I realise what is happening now, but I don’t understand why,” the victim said.
Schvarts, who was sentenced to 578 days for his role in the ordeal, abused the victim in Russian calling him a “whore”.
The drug lord then allegedly amped up the threat.
“This is how this is going down,” the drug lord said.
“You take the fifty and you sign everything over.
“You sign everything over and we bring the fifty to your house.”
The victim still refused so Bradshaw and the kingpin beat him to the ground.
The brutes also punched and kicked the victim in the head while he was down.
The victim, who had brain surgery just prior to the assault, begged his attackers to stop.
“Genna knows I’ve had extensive brain injuries, so you don’t want to make it a murder,” he said.
“Hit him over the head as much as you want,” Schvarts said.
“So you don’t come to the club anymore, you sign everything over and that’s the deal. You have no idea who we are, that is why bikies fear us,” the kingpin said.
Bradshaw then threatened to rock up to the victim’s house if he didn’t sign over the club.
Bradshaw and the kingpin left the club with Schvarts who had removed the CCTV hard drive.
The victim suffered serious facial fractures and spent three days in hospital.
Bradshaw and the kingpin were arrested in Sydney not long after the attack.
The pair met in jail in NSW while Bradshaw was doing time for drug trafficking, the court was told.
The defence submitted Bradshaw, a father, served in the navy for 12 years prior to getting into drugs and criminality.
Bradshaw, who has worked as a diver, personal trainer, labourer and ran his own construction business, wants to walk the straight and narrow and spend time with his daughter, the court heard
Bradshaw, who grew up in Townsville but lived in Sydney and Melbourne, will be sentenced at a later date.
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