Deadline: Big Melbourne name calls in underworld connections to clean up mess

He’s become something of a big name in Melbourne — but when life turned sour, he turned to some underworld-style connections to tidy things up.

A big name in Melbourne looked to friends in low places after life went sour.

Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler with the latest scallywag scuttlebutt.

Stress management, gangland-style

He’s become something of a big name in Melbourne town with reach into some high places.

But when life turned sour a while ago, he looked to friends in low places, calling in underworld-style connections to tidy things up.

His troubles all began with allegations of most ungentlemanly behaviour with two young ladies, and the fallout from this was causing our man sleepless nights.

The word is that after the worried one dialled up some persuasive paesanos, they were able to intervene to get him out of the quicksand.

Our man should perhaps remember that those kind souls are the types who will one day call in the favour.

Alphonse Gangitano once called in a favour to make some trouble go away. Picture: Ben Swinnerton

This reminds us of the sort of behind-the-scenes footwork that got the late Alphonse Gangitano off the hook after he shot Gregory John Workman at a party in St Kilda back in the day.

It involved his temporary friend, Jason Moran, tracing witnesses and making them an offer they couldn’t refuse.

In their case a very long overseas trip, all expenses paid.

Some might call it diplomacy. The Mexicans and Colombians call it “plata or plomo” (“silver or lead”), meaning take the bribe or get the bullet.

Beak’s right royal upgrade

Justice Stephen Kaye has been called many things over the years, mostly “Your Honour” and similarly respectful salutations.

But it is alleged that even this most sober and senior of judicial figures was seen to smile when he was promoted to royal status during a recent sitting day in the Supreme Court.

Justice Stephen Kaye.

A nervous witness several times referred to the judge as “Your Highness” during proceedings and when excused from the box.

Prosecutors and police are especially respectful of the fearless Kaye, who has been on the bench almost 20 years.

Back in 2011 he attracted some attention by backing the ancient Common Law principle that “a person not under arrest has no obligation to stop for police, or answer their questions.”

Further, he stated that no statute removes that right.

In theory, this means that even motorists need not stop for police unless they are actually arrested. In practice, according to the Deadline law school of hard knocks, it might be better not to push this ancient angle too hard with police in day-to-day traffic matters.

The “I don’t hafta stop for lights and sirens” defence might not fly in the average Magistrates’ Court, and High Court appeals cost more than it’s worth to find out just how far the Common Law will shield smart alec drivers. Better to go with the vibe of the thing.

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Binse makes cell call

Chris “Badness” Binse doesn’t seem the kind to be a huge fan of paperwork.

That’s why it’s at least believable that such a forceful personality might have recently teed up a prison transfer without resorting to a bunch of annoying forms.

He is said to have told staff at his previous penal home that he wanted to go back to Barwon Prison and that it would be happening soon, regardless of whether the prison bureaucracy granted it or not.

Although he did not spell out exactly what he meant, they listened and the move was arranged.

Christopher ‘Badness’ Binse has some advice for a photographer as he’s led from court in 2013. Picture: Julian Smith

Barwon is, hypothetically, where a prisoner might end up if he decides to turn nasty elsewhere in the corrections system.

In the 1990s, Binse and armed robber buddy John Lindrea went looking for the biggest transfer available: they tried to break out of Barwon but were foiled and copped more time for their trouble.

Both have since had spells on the outside, only to fall back into their old ways and head back to Her Majesty’s Hotel.

Binse has not always been able to get his own way. He tells a story against himself that his first ever robbery was of a small TAB in Braybrook.

CCTV of Binse aka taking security guard hostage during a Commonwealth Bank in 1992.

It didn’t start well for the apprentice bandit because the punters were too interested in the next race at Balaklava to worry about a twitchy little guy wearing a balaclava waving a gun and demanding money.

He finally got everyone’s attention by shooting a hole in the ceiling. He fiercely ordered the clerk to fill his shopping bag with banknotes — strictly no shrapnel — then grabbed the loot and drove the getaway car to the Western General Hospital carpark, where he had another vehicle planted.

After he swapped cars, he couldn’t resist checking the “take”. Sadly, it was all $1 and $2 notes, and totalled a lousy few hundred bucks. Not the first desperate to be robbed by a TAB.

Boston outta the clink

The women prisoners at Tarrengower Prison have just had their 500th winner on the dogs.

Boston, a former racing greyhound, is the 500th retired dishlicker to go through the jail in a program aimed at preparing greyhounds for life in adoption homes after the hurly burly of being trained in racing kennels.

Prisoners turned dog trainers teach the hounds to deal with things like stairs, loud household appliances and walking sedately on a lead under a scheme run since 2009 by Corrections Victoria and Greyhound Racing Victoria.

Tarrengower, near Maldon, is a minimum security jail for inmates nearing the end of their sentences.

The theory is that the greyhounds do prisoners as much good as they do the dogs: both prisoner and pooch leave jail better prepared for life on the outside.

Boston is the 500th retired dishlicker to go through Tarrengower Prison.

Youth justice blues

The unchecked violence allowed in Victoria’s youth prisons has staff fearing one of them will be murdered before something is done.

Fearful and angry officers pose a fair question: in which other workplace would staff be assaulted at this rate without urgent measures being taken to protect them?

There has been another cluster of ugly incidents at the Malmsbury facility in country Victoria recently, including unprovoked attacks that led to senior people being taken to hospital by ambulance.

Everyone accepts there are risks to such a job, as there are for police, paramedics and firefighters.

But it’s hard to imagine brutish attacks — some with weapons — happening elsewhere at the rate they are in youth justice facilities without it being viewed as a crisis.

Things were much quieter during the Covid lockdowns but the recent spate of trouble has staff wondering whether they’re heading for a repeat of the worst times they have experienced in years.

They believe a fatality is inevitable.