- Jockey Danny Nikolic charged with alleged robbery in Melbourne
- Lawyer Pat Lennon also charged for alleged robbery on January 9
Australian champion jockey Danny Nikolic and prominent lawyer Pat Lennon have been charged over an alleged robbery gone wrong in Melbourne.
The pair were allegedly arrested at an address in Carlton, on the outskirts of the CBD, at around 2am on January 9 after they allegedly filled bags with luxury items, including jewelery and designer handbags.
Nikolic and Lennon were allegedly trapped inside the house by locked doors.
Victoria Police said a witness saw two men breaking into the property of a house and called Triple Zero.
Nikolic, 50, and Lennon, 61, allegedly used a ladder to climb to the roof of the coffee shop next door before accessing the property through a balcony, according to The age.
Apparently, in the alley behind the house there was a second staircase.
Australian champion jockey Danny Nikolic (pictured) and prominent lawyer Pat Lennon have been charged over an alleged robbery in Melbourne.
The pair were allegedly arrested at an address in Carlton, just outside the CBD, at around 2am on January 9 (pictured is Nikolic, riding Starspangledbanner to victory in the Caulfield Guineas).
Nikolic and Lennon are alleged to have found themselves trapped inside the house by locked doors (Nikolic appears in Fiji, after his brother was arrested for drug offenses in 2018).
Officers arrived shortly after and the couple was arrested and later charged for the alleged incident.
“The Sandringham man, 61, and the Port Melbourne man, 50, were questioned and charged with robbery and theft,” a Victoria Police statement said.
They will appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on March 25.
Nikolic rode several Group One winners in his career, while Lennon was a well-known criminal lawyer who had Mick Gatto as one of his key clients.
In 2019, Nikolic's brother John was jailed for 18 years in Fiji after being sentenced for drug smuggling, including cocaine.
Authorities at the time stated that they found 13 bars of cocaine weighing 15 kilograms and worth about $20 million, $15,000 in ecstasy tablets, two handguns, ammunition and $20,000 in undeclared cash hidden on Nikolic's yacht called Shenanigans.
Before his arrest, John Nikolic and his wife Yvette were being monitored after their yacht set sail from Florida in the US, before stopping in Colombia and the Panama Canal before arriving in Fiji.
A court ruling in Fiji subsequently determined that there was no evidence to prove that Ms Nikolic was complicit in the possession or importation of illicit drugs or the possession of weapons.
Mrs. Nikolic was then released.