It was a week of high-profile legal proceedings across Wollongong and Port Kembla courts, featuring former sporting stars, significant fraud cases, and violent assaults. The Illawarra Mercury was there to cover the key details from a packed court docket.
Sporting Figures Face the Bench
Former rugby league and union international Wendell Sailor is set to fight charges stemming from his arrest in Wollongong in early December. The 51-year-old ex-Dragons player was taken into custody on December 5 after police responded to reports of a man standing in the middle of a road and shouting.
In a separate matter, another former Dragon, Trent Merrin, has avoided a criminal conviction for stealing $140,000 worth of cryptocurrency. The 36-year-old pleaded guilty to dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception. On Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Port Kembla Local Court sentenced him to an 18-month conditional release order without recording a conviction.
Major Fraud and Theft Cases Concluded
A significant embezzlement case reached its conclusion, with a woman sentenced to several years in jail for stealing almost $2.5 million from a Warilla business. Lynne Marie Geoghegan siphoned the funds from Shellharbour Roofing Services over nearly nine years, beginning her fraudulent activity just two months after starting as an accounts clerk.
Meanwhile, Carly Maree Collier, a 37-year-old from Berkeley, appeared in Wollongong District Court on December 4 to appeal the severity of her four-year prison term. She was convicted for defrauding $88,000 from a disabled woman, pleading guilty to 28 charges of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, along with shoplifting and aggravated break and enter offences.
Violent Crimes and Regulatory Breaches
The courts also dealt with serious acts of violence. A Berkeley man, Ian Palamara, was jailed after being found guilty of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm to a woman and affray. The incident occurred at a park in Stream Hill, near Kembla Grange, in September 2023.
In a shocking machete attack, a Fairy Meadow man required surgery to reattach nerves in his wrist. The victim, in his 20s, was at his Meadow Street home with his pregnant partner and a young child on March 10, 2025, when he was attacked by Leroy Black, 21, a man he had known for a decade.
On the regulatory front, The Australian Tobacco Station on King Street, Warrawong, pleaded guilty to multiple offences in Wollongong Local Court on December 4. The charges followed a raid by NSW Health inspectors in October 2024 and included selling tobacco without health warnings, three counts of selling restricted substances as a non-wholesaler, and displaying tobacco products to the public.
The week's proceedings underscore the wide range of legal matters handled by the Illawarra's court system, from celebrity incidents to complex financial crimes and serious assaults.
