Bassam Hamzy asked gangster to chase Salim Mehajer over $350k debt, court told
Evidence has emerged in court that crime boss Bassam Hamzy — serving a 40-year jail sentence for murder and other offences — was chasing former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer over a $350,000 debt.
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Crime boss Bassam Hamzy asked a gangster to chase Salim Mehajer over a $350,000 debt the controversial property developer allegedly owed, the NSW Supreme Court has been told.
Hamzy is serving a 40-year jail sentence for murder and other offences, but this has not stopped his tentacles stretching beyond NSW’s most secure prison as a major player in the criminal underworld.
And that includes murder, extortion, kneecappings and debt collection, the court has been told.
Details of Hamzy’s reach have emerged in the trial of Abdul Abu-Mahmoud, who has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating the murder of 15-year-old Brayden Dillon — shot by a contract killer as he slept in his mother’s home in April 2017.
The trial has heard evidence from a crime figure, known as Witness F, who told the court Hamzy used an intermediary to offer him the contract to kill Brayden.
Under cross-examination by defence barrister Ertunc Ozen SC, Witness F told the court he rejected the request but was offered other jobs.
One of these was to collect money on behalf of Hamzy.
He told the court one of Hamzy’s targets was Mr Mehajer and the amount to be collected was $350,000.
The court heard Witness F never went through with the debt collection job.
A former deputy mayor of Auburn, Mr Mehajer shot to fame in 2015 when his lavish wedding shut down the street in front of his Lidcombe home and made front page news.
Since then, he has been jailed for electoral fraud and his property empire has collapsed.
The Saturday Telegraph asked Mr Mehajer about the evidence and if he had ever borrowed money from Hamzy.
He responded: “These are patently absurd speculations.”
Abu-Mahmoud — an associate of Hamzy — has pleaded not guilty to orchestrating Brayden’s shooting murder in revenge for his nephew’s death in 2016.
Conrad Craig can now be named as the killer after Justice Ian Harrison — who sentenced him to a maximum of 40 years in jail — lifted a non-publication order on Thursday.
Craig gave evidence that Hamzy befriended him behind bars and gave him a list of jobs to do once he was released.
Justice Harrison has been asked to weigh up if Hamzy, a close associate of the Abu-Mahmoud family, was involved in organising or covering up Brayden’s killing.
Hamzy had a romantic interest in Abu-Mahmoud’s sister when she was a prison psychologist and he was an inmate at Silverwater jail in 2000, the court heard.
The court also heard Hamzy groomed “lost souls” in the prison yard, offering support and guidance.
He also micromanaged the operations of the Brothers for Life gang via smuggled mobile phones, with Justice Harrison likening the phone use to “running a switchboard”.
Court documents said Hamzy used his contraband phone almost 300 times in one day in April 2017.
Originally published as Bassam Hamzy asked gangster to chase Salim Mehajer over $350k debt, court told
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