A longtime welfare recipient who was arrested in his underpants when police seized luxury cars and watches from his house has pleaded not guilty to a dishonesty charge.
Mahmoud ‘Bargo’ Bargshoon was on Centrelink for five years before he was allegedly busted with a Lamborghini, a Harley Davidson, Rolex watches and high end designer gear in July.
Police had been investigating the unexplained wealth of individuals with alleged links to organised crime networks, when they were led to the unit where Bargshoon was living with his wife, glamorous gangster widow Fatima Hage, in Parramatta, western Sydney.
There, they allegedly seized $500,000 worth of items including a Lamborghini Huracan, a Harley Davidson V-Rod and two Rolex watches. Heavily armed State Crime Command Organised Crime Squad police dragged Bargshoon from the unit in the early morning in his underwear.
Footage from Bargshoon’s arrest also showed a shoe rack stacked with a range of Nike sneakers – a premium brand of footwear – and a large flat-screen TV mounted on the wall in the loungeroom.
Bargshoon was a no-show at Parramatta Local Court on Friday as his defence lawyer Harry Gribilas denied the charge of dishonestly possessing ‘a motor vehicle with a unique identifier which has been interfered with’.
The charge is believed to relate to the $384,000 Lamborghini Huracan found at his flat.
Heavily armed State Crime Command Organised Crime Squad police dragged Mahmoud Bargshoon in the early morning in just his underwear (above) from his unit in Parramatta
Bargshoon’s wife, glamorous gangster widow Fatima Hage, is above
Police seized this Lamborghini (above) from Mahmoud Bargshoon in the early hours of July 11 this year, along with Rolex watches and a Harley Davidson
The 39-year-old, who has been on the dole since 2019, had previously made headlines over a dispute between Ms Hage, and an ex-girlfriend, Rose, over a woman’s Rolex watch.
The dispute was sparked by a voluptuous portrait of newly married Bargshoon and Ms Hage, in which she wore a revealing jumpsuit and was perched on a golden throne on her new husband’s lap, with a blue Hermes Birkin bag place besides her high-heeled feet.
On Ms Hage’s left wrist in the photo was a watch which Rose claimed was the same $12,500 two-toned diamond timepiece he had originally given her, but which had mysteriously vanished.
Ms Hage firmly denied the allegations on her husband’s behalf to Daily Mail Australia, and claimed that she wore a different watch for the photograph.
Before their three-month relationship ended, a suspicious Rose confronted Bargshoon, who denied he had taken the luxury watch.
Rose then accused him of stealing it before allegedly gifting it to Ms Hage, a glamorous hairdresser.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest Bargshoon stole the watch, simply that it became the subject of a months-long feud between the two women.
Bargshoon in custody after his arrest by heavily armed State Crime Command Organised Crime Squad police who dragged him from the unit in just his underwear
Daily Mail Australia previously revealed that another Lamborghini Huracan, rented by Bargshoon, was torched on a street in Olympic Park in western Sydney last year.
Police launched a hunt for two people seen carrying jerry cans moments before the blaze broke out, but no charges have ever been laid over the incident.
Trials and tribulations of Bargshoon’s wife
Prior to marrying Bargshoon, Ms Hage had a tragic romantic history with two different gangsters.
Seven years ago, she survived a gangland hit which claimed the life of her lover, Kemel ‘Blackie’ Barakat.
Barakat had longstanding links to the Comanchero and Hells Angels bikie gangs, and was a suspect in the execution of career criminal, Hamad Assaad, 29, in 2016.
Fatima and Blackie were in bed in Mortlake, in the city’s south, at 2.30am in March 2017 when masked gunmen burst into his unit and executed him in a hail of bullets.
Barakat’s trusted friend, former Sydney electrician Ahmed Jaghbir, has since been convicted of being an accessory before the fact to the murder, after he organised for a new door and locks to be fitted to the apartment where the shooting took place.
Ms Hage is now suing NSW Police for trauma and PTSD following the assassination.
Bargshoon’s rented Lamborghini Huracan was set on fire in western Sydney
Fatima Hage (left) and Blackie Barakat (right) were in bed in Mortlake, in the city’s south, at about 2.30am on March 10, 2017 when masked gunmen burst into his unit and executed him in a hail of bullets
Fatima Hage had a relationship with Mahmoud Rizk (above, together) who was later accused and then convicted of shooting a 14-year-old girl outside a Connells Point home in July, 2022
She then had a relationship with Mahmoud Rizk, who was later accused and then convicted of shooting a 14-year-old girl outside a Connells Point home in July, 2022.
The shooting, regarded as the most terrible in Sydney’s gangland war, occurred after Rizk and another man had arrived at the address looking for a Brothers 4 Life gang member.
The teenage girl, who was dressed in her Dr Seuss pyjamas and helping to unpack groceries at the time, lay bleeding on the ground after she was shot in the hip and asked her mother: ‘Am I going to die?’.
Rizk has also been accused of stalking and intimidating Ms Hage from prison, and breaching an AVO taken out against by police of her behalf.
Bargshoon’s charge is next listed in Parramatta local Court in November.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk