Deadline: Freed ‘getaway driver’ clocked speeding
Speed kills even experienced drivers, which is why police recently pulled over Faruk Orman — fresh off serving 12 years for allegedly being the getaway driver for a hit man.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Melbourne’s top crime writers Andrew Rule and Mark Buttler launch a new weekly column on hard-boiled cops, hardened robbers and the city’s legal eagles.
ULTRA TUNED
Sean Buckley is a man of many parts, including some of rubber, silicone and wax. Hardly surprising for a tycoon credited with building the UltraTune car maintenance chain, which has 300 outlets nationwide.
It’s hard to believe that the man who owned the wonderful galloper Miss Andretti could be so lucky again. But some people now wonder if he has discovered the fountain of youth.
This follows recent publication of eye-catching photographs of Mr B and estranged partner Jennifer Cruz Cole in happier times. Like Cher, the pair look to have turned back time. Madame Tussaud eat your heart out.
Now Ms Cole has decided she’d rather go back to being a full-time bikini model and “elective surgery nurse” than waste herself on a middle-aged man whose skin seems stretched even tighter than her own, plus his spooky black hair straight from the Dulux catalogue.
Perhaps she resented having to do lie detector tests for lover boy.
That might explain why she recorded hours of frank conversation with him — recordings which reputedly have the police’s interest.
Mr B has had more success with four-legged friends, notably Miss Andretti, who won a big race at Royal Ascot in 2007. Ditto Shamus Award in the 2013 Cox Plate.
ORMAN V LAWMEN
Speed kills even experienced drivers, which is why police pulled over skilled wheelman Faruk Orman for doing 30kph over the limit recently. Result: $537 fine, licence suspended.
It’s unlikely this worries Mr Orman as much as his previous legal headache — serving 12 years jail for allegedly being the getaway driver for now ex-hit man Andrew ‘Benji’ Veniamin after the shooting of Walsh St cop killer Victor Peirce in Port Melbourne in 2002.
On that occasion, a Commodore left the scene rather sedately as if not to attract attention.
Mr Orman was arrested a few weeks later and banged up, at least partly because his X-rated lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, was moonlighting for the police at the time. Which is why his conviction was overturned a year ago with help from legal eagle Ruth Parker, regarded by admiring clients as Lawyer A+.
BEER AT CRICKET
A face familiar in Melbourne police circles bobbed up as India claimed its historic cricket victory last month.
Amid the Gabba chaos was the striking bouffant of former Melbourne detective Howard Beer, now a security and anti-corruption officer in cricket land.
After months at close quarters, the lifetime cricket fan has struck up a rapport with the Indian team, and had a friendly beer (naturally) with legend Ravi Shastri after the series.
His next assignment is expected to be the Big Bash, which in not a reference to his old job. He was in the homicide squad, which considered bashing suspects wasn’t cricket.
Other crime squad veterans, meanwhile, will have noticed the inclusion of young gun cricketer James Bazley, who plays for the Heat.
Nothing to do with old-time gunman James “Iceman” Bazley, who did time for murders. The iceman, who died of natural causes in 2018, once killed a husband and wife for cash but refused to kill their dog.
‘All he wanted to do’: Abdulrahim’s plan to leave criminal underworld
Just hours before his murder, The Punisher told his close friends he was ready to leave Melbourne’s underworld scene to focus on his young daughter.
Beaconsfield teacher who sexually preyed on nine boys dodges jail
A former Beaconsfield Primary School grade 6 teacher who sexually assaulted and groomed young boys over more than a decade has escaped jail in a sentence slammed by his ex-teaching colleagues as “a joke”.