Two Brothers for Life gang members who gave evidence against their leader in return for receiving lighter sentences have had their deals with the police ripped up.
The men – given the pseudonyms of witnesses C and G – contradicted the initial statements, which had helped them sew up favourable deals, when they gave evidence against senior gang figure Mohammed Hamzy.
Their witness box versions of a fatal shooting for which Hamzy was on trial appeared to bolster the Bankstown chapter leader's claim he acted in self-defence when he shot at two men in Greenacre in 2012.
Hamzy – nicknamed "Little Crazy" or "LC" – eventually beat a murder charge and was convicted last year on the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Now witnesses C and G are facing re-sentencing for their respective crimes after failing to hold up their ends of the deals.
The cases will likely serve as a deterrent to other rollover witnesses, who police see as valuable tools in cracking organised crime cases.
The Brothers for Life gang was brought down in 2013 and 2014 after a period of unpredictable violence, including drive-by shootings, killings and bashings, sparked a sweeping police crackdown.
In a move designed to strengthen cases against some of the main players, many gang members were approached with the tempting offers of receiving lighter sentences for their own crimes in exchange for divulging useful information.
Offering inducements to criminals, especially in the realm of organised crime, is a common investigative tool used to help police catch "the big fish" and "divide and conquer".
"It creates an atmosphere of mistrust in organised crime groups," one officer explained.
Witness C was injured when Hamzy fired 11 shots into the car he was in at Greenacre on October 14, 2012.
It emerged during Hamzy's trial last year that there was tension between him and C after Hamzy claimed he had an affair with C's wife.
However, it was the police allegation Hamzy – then 27 years old – wasn't happy with C because he called Hamzy's wife a a "slut and a gold digger".
Hamzy's bullets killed Yeyha Amood, a fellow BFL member and Hamzy's close friend, who was seated in the passenger seat next to C.
C agreed to assist police and gave evidence during Hamzy's trial last year. But when in the witness box, C seemed to back his former gang leader's version of events.
He claimed he wanted to shoot Hamzy over his rumoured affair, in turn giving weight to Hamzy's argument that he fired the shots that day in self-defence.
It is understood a letter of assistance was presented during C's own court case for a brazen ram raid on a high-end designer store.
Fairfax Media understands that, as a result of his performance in the witness box last year, C's deal has since been ripped up.
His case was mentioned in the Court of Criminal Appeal late last year with the aim of appealing his discounted sentence.
The other rollover witness in the complicated BFL web, G, is heading down the same path.
G drove Hamzy in a borrowed Lexus to the fatal meeting with C and Mr Amood outside Hamzy's mother's house on Greenacre Road.
It is understood the original charges for his role in the shooting were downgraded and he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence.
However, sources say that agreement has also been ripped up.
Court orders prevent detailed reporting of C's and G's individual cases.
After a lengthy trial, Hamzy was found not guilty of murdering Mr Amood but convicted of manslaughter. He was also found guilty of wounding C with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and sentenced to at least 8½ years behind bars.
In sentencing him, Justice Robert Allan Hulme cast serious doubt over the credibility of Hamzy and the rollover witnesses, C and G.
"I gained the distinct impression that they were all doing their best to provide an exculpatory self-defence version no matter what they had said in the past," he said in his judgment.
