Deadline: Postcard Bandit Brenden Abbott could be freed from prison in time to watch Binge TV series inspired by his exploits

There was a touch of Hollywood about Brenden Abbot — who was said to have sent postcards to the fuzz while on the run. So its fitting his bid for freedom comes as a TV series based on his exploits is set to be released.

Mark Buttler with his weekly dose of scallywag scuttlebutt.

Bad Abbott hard to break

There was a touch of Hollywood about Brenden Abbott, whose freedom is now on the line again.

Abbott was a crook with plenty of dash, a prolific armed robber and prison escapee with female admirers who ran rings around authorities for a few years.

He came to be known as the Postcard Bandit because of a – probably false – story that he used the mail to keep detectives abreast of his travels while on the run.

On the night Abbott and a band of violent jail desperados broke out of Queensland’s Sir David Longland Corrections, he left a letter requesting a transfer on his pillow.

A nice touch but the fact remains that Abbott was probably not the criminal mastermind his ingenious prison breakouts in West Australia in 1989 and Queensland in 1997 might suggest.

He was a bloke who undoubtedly could have achieved a lot in life but has spent all bar a few years since the 1980s in maximum security accommodation.

Abbott is escorted back to a Brisbane prison in 1998 after one of his breakouts.

Now, he’s trying to get out of jail again – this time legally.

They’re playing for sheep stations in a case which was before the West Australian Supreme Court this week.

Abbott either walks free from Perth’s Casuarina Prison or is looking at a potential release date of 2033, by which time he’ll be 70-years-old.

Stay inside and he might not even get to watch the new six-part Binge series based on his exploits which starts filming in a matter of months.

His legal team will have tried to convince Justice Amanda Forrester that WA sentencing laws enacted in 1996 which extended his term as he languished in a Queensland jail are not valid.

Anyway, the court can be satisfied of least one thing; he won’t be returning to his old stick-em-up ways.

Brenden James Abbott abroad in 1990.

Abbott living it up in a Gold Coast hotel swimming pool.

It is 40 years since Abbott and a vast band of other criminals were running amok in Australia’s armed robbery heyday.

Back then, banks were going off at a rate of close to one a day as bandits armed with sawn-offs cashed in on vulnerable security measures.

That all changed and, through the 1990s and 2000s, such businesses became almost impregnable, a fact reflected by heists being non-existent today.

In any case, a 2025 armed robber would probably find nothing to steal.

Our cashless society means banks are often holding bugger-all money and what is available has to be brought in by client request.

A man with the name Brenden Abbott would have a lot of trouble teeing that up.

If the cap fits

Cops out Casey way have been looking to have a chat with Jorden Turney and helpfully sent out a photo of him recently.

Nothing too unusual about that, apart from a red, semicircular marking on his forehead.

Could it be a birthmark or the result of some kind of strange mistreatment?

Deadline asked a well-informed source and, following a brief period of ridicule for a lack of observational skills, it was explained that Mr Turney had clearly been wearing a baseball cap back-to-front.

Innocent until proven otherwise, we say, but there’s no doubt Mr Turney is guilty of failing to slip, slop, slap.

Jorden Turney is guilty of failing to slip, slop, slap.

Grim work

The Victoria Police missing persons squad has a tough job, often in distressing circumstances.

They are assigned investigations where there is a suspicion a victim has met with foul play but no body has been found.

It can be painstaking and macabre work, usually starting from a position of few clues and ending with the discovery of human remains which, at least, allows family members to give their loved ones a funeral.

More practically, it proves the victim is actually dead and can yield crucial evidence in a future prosecution.

Over recent years, their protracted inquiries have located the remains of Russell Hill, Carol Clay, Kelly Zhang, Bradley Lyons, Maryam Hamka and Jarrod Lovison, among others.

The squad’s latest significant result was last weekend when the remains of Sunbury man Joshua Bishop were found at a Westmeadows home.

Missing Persons Squad detectives have located human remains and arrested a man as part of their investigation into the suspicious disappearance of Sunbury man Joshua Bishop. Picture: Tony Gough

Mr Bishop had vanished on May 27 when his housemate last saw him.

The 23-year-old’s phone later “pinged” in Broadmeadows Valley Park but the trail went cold from there.

There were a couple of major searches last month then came a breakthrough on Saturday when Mr Bishop’s remains were found at the Erinbank Crescent property.

A 27-year-old man was arrested and charged on Sunday with murder.

It wasn’t the result Mr Bishop’s family had prayed for at least it means they will be able to give him a proper farewell.

Men and women of steal

Retail theft has long been an issue in St Albans.

It was some years ago that Deadline highlighted the sales of stolen meat in the summer heat for those wanting prime cuts with a side of food poisoning.

Anyway, some good news last week for local business owners and those further afield when northwest metro regional crime officers grabbed seven people and seized $125,000 in products stolen from shops for a crime syndicate in the area.

The stolen meat lovingly displayed on the sun bathed St Albans footpath. Picture: 7News

Police said alcohol was top of the pops with organised groups of shoplifters working together to steal then onselling their booty.

But it wasn’t all about grog and investigators will allege the syndicate stole beauty and health products in their $320,000 in thefts around Melbourne this year.

St Albans was where the fences, both business operators and individuals, bought the hot property.

A bottle shop owner, 32, was arrested on Main Rd where detectives seized stolen whisky and other spirits, illegally imported tobacco, vapes and a baton.

The amount of stolen gear was so large that police had to hire a truck to move it.

It shouldn’t be too difficult to track down the stolen Furphy water cart.

No Furphy

Crooks never run out of things to steal.

The latest unusual target was a Furphy water cart stolen from a business in Hazelwood North on June 5.

Police last week released images of the stolen cart and a bloke entering the premises on Bonds Lane at 5am that day.

With the name Furphy emblazoned on the side, it shouldn’t be too hard to spot.

A spot of history; the Furphy farm water cart was developed around the turn of the century by John Furphy in northern Victoria.

His invention was, reportedly, the first to combine a water tank and the cart needed to transport it.