Inside the urgent phone calls of ‘getaway driver’ Andy Pham after Taha Sabbagh underworld murder

Listen to the urgent phone calls made by Andy Pham as he tried to sort fleeing the country in the hours after he was involved in the murder of innocent father Taha Sabbagh.

Three minutes after walking in the front door of his home, following a morning spent carrying out a gangland murder, Le Nghia “Andy” Pham called the Australian Passport Office and began desperately trying to get overseas.

“Um hi, I was wondering, like … how much for like, an emergency passport?” Pham asked the female employee on the other end.

It was 9.40am on March 2, 2023, and at that time Taha Sabbagh’s body was still lying under a tarp outside Elite Fight Force gym at Sefton, in Sydney’s southwest.

Some three hours earlier, Mr Sabbagh had parked his BMW outside the boxing gym when a balaclava-clad gunman ran up and shot him dead in a hail of 10 bullets.

Pham, 27, was late last year found guilty by a NSW Supreme Court jury for his role in the joint criminal enterprise to murder Mr Sabbagh, having driven the gunmen around on the day of the shooting and parked getaway cars in place in the days before.

Taha Sabbagh was shot dead in what police believe was a case of mistaken identity in 2023. Picture: Instagram

Andy Pham made urgent phone calls seeking a passport, the court heard.

The jury heard how Pham was part of a “proper crew” with two other associates who in the immediate aftermath of the killing, had flown overseas.

Much to their annoyance however, Pham had “lagged” in his preparation to escape.

“You f**ked around all this time? What the f**k is wrong with you?” a frustrated associate said to Pham over an encrypted messaging app, from abroad.

Audio recordings of Pham’s phone call in the aftermath of Mr Sabbagh being gunned down reveal how he told the passport operator he needed the travel document urgently.

“Let’s say for example, yeah, I want to get a passport ASAP (as soon as possible), how much would that cost and how long?” Pham asked.

When the Australian Passport Office worker told him it would cost $562, Pham replied: “So like, do I have to wait for two weeks or can I just go grab it straight away in the city?”

Andy Pham is interviewed by police at Surry Hills Police Station. Picture: Supplied

The woman told Pham the passport would be ready within two business days of his urgent application being received, and that the quickest way was for him to go to the passport office himself to collect it.

“Yep OK, OK bye,” Pham said, ending the call abruptly.

The jury was told during the trial that police could not provide a motive for why Mr Sabbagh was murdered.

One theory is that the innocent father was killed in a case of mistaken identity and another regular at Elite Fight Force gym was the intended target.

Sabbagh had just parked in the carpark at Elite Fight Force gym in Sefton when he was killed. Picture: ABC

Homicide Squad detectives working under Strike Force Pemak ran the investigation. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Regardless, in the aftermath of the shooting, Pham joked how his “boys got him (Mr Sabbagh) good”.

Despite not initially having his plans to fly abroad sorted, in the month-and-a-half following the murder Pham got his passport and bought a flight to Vietnam.

But he still did not have everything he needed.

“By chance do you have any luggage?” Pham asked an associate, in an intercepted phone call recorded by NSW Police, just days before he was due to fly abroad.

“Wait, where are you going?” the associate asked.

“(I’m) going to Vietnam,” Pham replied.

Crown prosecutor Christopher Taylor told the jury in his closing that when Pham headed for the airport on the afternoon of April 23, 2023, with his passport and luggage sorted, he must have thought: “I’ve got away with it for this long, I’m not going to get caught. They’re not onto me at all.”

Detective Sergeant Kieran Glenzendorf and Detective Senior Constable Kristy McGee lead Pham through Sydney International Airport, following his arrested in April 2023. Picture: NSW Police

However, as he found out when he reached the gate at Sydney International Airport, Border Force officials had been tipped off by NSW Police about his plans.

At a press conference on the day Pham was arrested, Homicide Squad boss Danny Doherty admitted that his efforts to urgently get a passport “obviously raised a flag for us”.

A video recording of his police interview with Strike Force Pemak detectives at Surry Hills Police Station that night, shows Pham being asked several questions by Detective Sergeant Kieran Glenzendorf, many of which he did not understand.

“What do you mean by that?” Pham replied on several occasions.

Pham was found guilty by a NSW Supreme Court jury after three days of deliberations last year. Photo: Supplied.

After telling the detectives he did not agree to be formally interviewed, Pham was led away by a custody sergeant.

Pham’s defence barrister Madeleine Avenell SC told the jury that her client drove around the shooter and a second unknown man around, both before and after Mr Sabbagh was killed.

She also said Pham did not deny smashing his phone up or receiving $20,000 in the wake of the murder.

But despite claiming there was no evidence “pointing persuasively to (his) agreement to kill someone”, a jury disagreed.

Pham will return to court next month ahead of his sentencing.

Originally published as Inside the urgent phone calls of ‘getaway driver’ Andy Pham after Taha Sabbagh underworld murder