Deadline: Secret surrounds Westmeadows Tavern siege

A balaclava-clad bandit who pulled off a terrifying armed robbery at the Westmeadows Tavern remains at large — and he has one of Victoria’s most infamous prisoners to thank.

Melbourne’s top crime writers Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with their weekly dose of scallywag scuttlebutt.

KILLER STILL SILENT ON HOTEL HEIST

John Lindrea could be described many ways, few of them positive, but there’s no question he can keep a secret.

The man who helped him pull a terrifying armed robbery on the Westmeadows Tavern in March last year can be thankful for that.

The pair cut through the roof then waited inside for two hours to overpower a female staff member arriving for work.

The balaclava-wearing bandits menaced the woman with guns and forced her to open safes and a teller machine.

The Westmeadows Tavern was targeted by armed robbers. Picture: David Crosling

They then locked her in a cupboard while Lindrea rashly ignored CCTV to sip on Jack Daniels and cola he knocked off from a fridge.

When the police turned up earlier than they expected, Lindrea and his mystery mate escaped — without the $176,000 they’d thrown in a bag.

Lindrea last week pleaded guilty to that stick-up. But, 18 months on, the other bandit has still not been charged, even if the betting is that police suspect his identity.

Lindrea, 59, might not be a master criminal but he has stuck to his vocation longer than most. Apart from lifers like Robert Arthur Selby Lowe and Ashley Mervyn Coulston, not many prisoners have spent so much of the past three decades in jail.

John Lindrea.

Armed Police at the Westmeadows Tavern.

Lindrea was locked up in 1992 for killing Kaelene McDonald and Andrew Johns and wounding a third person at a Kinglake house warming party. It wasn’t a robbery, revenge or a paid hit. He was gatecrashing and resented being told to leave.

Since then, Lindrea has had only a handful of years outside prison. Inside, sources say, he is respected and viewed as well-connected enough to be left alone.

“No one f … with him,” one former officer says. “He really wasn’t such a bad bloke. He understands how that world (prison) operates.”

That’s not to say Lindrea has been a boy scout behind bars. He once spent two months on the run after escaping the old Pentridge Prison and, in 1995, he and colourful armed robber Christopher Dean Binse were busted trying to escape Barwon Prison.

The pair caused an outcry because they were seen as such a security risk they were shackled for a court appearance.

Then there was Lindrea’s involvement in the infamous “Trial from Hell” in 2000. He was one of a group of notorious prisoners, including Matthew Johnson and Sean Sonnet, who turned proceedings into disgrace when human faeces was flung at the jury.

Lindrea did not join in the most outrageous actions in court and was acquitted of bashing

murderer Gregory “Bluey” Brazel. Which might be his only win against the system.

The 1951 Chevrolet was stolen from Invermay, near Ballarat.

WANTED: CHEVY NUMBER 36509H

Good luck trying to flog off this fine 70-year-old set of wheels on Gumtree. The striking 1951 Chevrolet was stolen from a carport at a property at Invermay, near Ballarat, earlier this month.

It’s hard to guess what the thieves have in mind for the Chev, which has club registration plates with the number 36509H.

Given the car’s rarity, the thieves (or receivers) will find it hard to get away with “hanging laps” in it, as they say in Ballarat.

On the subject of Ballarat car thieves, one local crook’s crime spree came to a sticky end last week.

A burglar in a stolen Mitsubishi Pajero went off-road to avoid the law but asked too much of the four-wheel-drive and found himself bogged to the axles at 2.30am under the glare of the police helicopter spotlight.

He’s been charged with a swag of thefts, including stealing the Pajero. Like John Lindrea, he fought the law and the law won.

VIRUS ACES ICE DEALER

The vibrant and multicultural crime centre of northern Victoria, Shepparton, has come back from lockdown after being hit by a nasty coronavirus outbreak.

One reason for Shepp’s troubles was that a Covid-infected drug dealer refused to shut up shop the way dozens of legitimate businesses in the area did.

It was probably a bit optimistic to expect a meth trafficker to pull up stumps in the interest of public health. But he eventually got the message and suspended his services under threat of a spell in forced quarantine.

MEANWHILE, COUNTRY COPS DO IT EASY

While city police are up to their riot helmets in ugly clashes with ugly protesters, their fortunate colleagues in the west of the state are doing pandemic duty a lot more easily.

A Grampians Golf Club stalwart was driving past the club’s picturesque bush course the other day when he dropped in to make sure vandals and the many resident kangaroos hadn’t got up to any mischief on the fairways.

He was surprised to see a black BMW parked near the 18th hole and accosted the driver and his passenger, wondering if they were trespassers, car thieves, or just well-heeled tourists doing a spot of “parking”.

None of the above. The pair in the black Beemer were two of Victoria’s finest, dispatched from Hamilton to ensure that no one was sneaking onto the sleepy bush course to hit a ball.

Nice work if you can get it.

JUMP THE SHARK OR DO A FAWLTY?

There are more online petitions than there are worthy causes but there’s one that would be nice to see succeed.

The petition pleads for Scott Ryan and Nash Edgerton, two of the brains trust behind cult Australian crime series Mr Inbetween, to resume production of the show, which centres on the many dramas of amiable hitman Ray Shoesmith.

There are questions over whether cult Australian crime series Mr Inbetween will do a 'Fonzie and Jump the Shark.

On Change.org, it reads in part: “Too many loose ends were left, and too many subplots were unfinished for the series not to continue.

“What becomes of Freddie? We demand to know. What becomes of Gary? We demand to know. We must know if Britt grows up to be a well-adjusted person. We must know if Ray finds love, happiness, and peace, or if he finds trouble and unnatural death.”

All fair questions. But some series are remembered for stopping at their peak, while others jump the shark. So will it be a Fawlty … or a Fonzie?