Arico was a technical school drop-out who a judge would say masked his immaturity with bravado.

Police say Arico once ran a stolen car racket with friend Dino Dibra.

The racket allegedly involved re-building registered cars with the bodies and parts of stolen ones.

When not buying new cars at auction for the clean framework, police have been told, the two were out extorting nightclub patrons for their car keys.

Nightclubs were playgrounds for Dibra and Arico.

In particular they were regular faces at Dome in Prahran and a Crown Casino nightclub.

Police believe Dibra was dealing in cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines at clubs.

He had a loyal group in tow and Arico was his most faithful sidekick.

"Their behaviour was violent, irrational and dangerous. they'd go off tap for no reason," a former detective says of the duo.

Arico was involved in a kidnapping with his western suburbs cohorts Terrence Chimmiri and Dibra.

The trio were among several men charged over the bashing and stabbing of a man forced at gun point into the boot of a car on August 2, 1999.

The victim, one of Arico's associate's brothers, was kidnapped in broad daylight in the northern suburb of Ardeer.

The victim was punched, kicked and pistol whipped in an extortion attempt.

After the initial kidnapping, Dibra, Arico and associates Terrence Chimmiri and Salih Kocoglu had to chase their victim who activated an emergency switch to open the boot.

He jumped from the moving vehicle and the four chased him and bundled him back into the car in front of flabbergasted onlookers.

They took him to Dibra's Taylors Lakes house.

But police had installed phone and video bugs as part of the investigation into a nightclub shooting.

The kidnap gang attempted to extort $20,000 from the victim's brother.

This was whittled down to $5000 by the time police raided the house.

The victim was still in the boot of the car when they arrived.

Arico was bailed on those charges when prosecution witnesses did not attend court.

Dibra, Arico and Chimirri were arrested the next day and Kocoglu soon after.

Arico was suspected of killing Richard Mlandenich on May 16, 2000.

He was a notorious standover man who spent his adult life in and out of jail.

Mlandenich, then 39, died from a bullet to the head in a St Kilda motel.

At about 3.30am, one of his ''many enemies'' entered room 18 of the Esquire Motel, a haunt of prostitutes, heroin dealers and addicts, and shot Mladenich.

A witness said she was in bed beside her sleeping boyfriend, Gabbi "Rocky" Jabbour, talking to Mladenich as another man slept in a chair.

She said in a statement the door swung open quickly and a young, slim, tanned man wearing sunglasses under a hooded windcheater took three large, fast steps into the room.

The man raised his right arm and aimed it at Mladenich's head as he got up.

"I heard a sound . . . like party poppers going off and a bit of an echo.

I then saw Richard fall towards the door," she said.

The killer lowered his arm, "turned and looked directly at me for about two or three seconds.

Two years later, Coroner Phillip Byrne delivered an open finding after the inquest into the killing.

Detective Sergeant Stuart Bateson said Mr Jabbour told police he suspected Rocco Arico of the murder.

By this time had been jailed over a near fatal road-rage shooting (see below).

Mr Jabbour's statement said Arico had asked where Ms Davies was and that a fellow prisoner told him to "forget about the four seconds in which Richard was killed and forget that the girl saw the guy".

Police were not permitted to interview Arico in jail.

On July 15, 2000, Arico was driving a car involved in a minor accident in Taylors Lakes which resulted in the victim being shot five times.

Again, in the company of Dino Dibra, the pair were driving cars which cut off another vehicle.

In the ensuing argument, Arico shot the man several times with an automatic pistol.

The road rage shooting victim had been offered cash to say that he'd incorrectly identified Arico, senior-detective Darren Dean later said when he opposed Arico's bail.

At about 7am Vincenzo Godino started to drive home after completing his duties as a cleaner at a gambling club in Sunbury.

He drove towards Taylors Lakes, where he lived, along the Calder Freeway turning off at Sunshine Avenue.

He then proceeded in a southerly direction along this road towards a roundabout, situated at its intersection with the Melton Highway.

As he entered the roundabout, a silver-coloured Holden Commodore sedan came through the intersection at high speed from his left.

Mr Godino continued to drive through the roundabout when a burgundy coloured Holden Statesman vehicle also entered following the earlier vehicle at high speed.

Mr Godino stated that he braked hard and tried to turn his car to avoid a collision.

He skidded and his vehicle rotated approximately 180 degrees.

Fortunately there was no impact.

He saw both of the vehicles speeding westward along the Melton Highway.

The two cars were also observed by Senior Constable Behrens who had just completed a night shift at the Keilor Downs police station and was travelling homeward in a northerly direction along Sunshine Avenue towards the roundabout.

Mr Godino, who was angered by what had occurred, commenced to pursue the speeding vehicles.

He saw them turn into Sandpiper Drive and followed them.

At about this time Senior Constable Behrens drove past Sandpiper Drive.

He looked to his right along that road and saw the two cars.

They appeared to be slowing down.

He then saw a mustard brown car (Mr Godino's vehicle), catching up with him before it made a right-hand turn into Sandpiper Drive.

Mr Godino followed the cars until he lost sight of them for a short time.

He next saw the silver Commodore parked in a driveway in Orion Close with its nose facing the street.

The burgundy Statesman was parked in the driveway opposite.

He did not stop and continued to drive along slowly for another two or three hundred metres.

By this time he had calmed down.

Some sense of discretion had returned and so he proceeded to turn and to drive home.

He passed the houses where the two cars were still parked and saw persons standing at the driver's side of the burgundy Statesman.

He did not stop, nor did he make any gestures.

As he continued on his journey, he observed the silver Commodore approaching him from behind, flashing its headlights.

Mr Godino pulled over towards the kerb and stopped.

The silver Commodore pulled up on his right-hand side.

The window of the driver's side door of Mr Godino's vehicle was wound down.

The front passenger window of the Commodore appeared to move down electrically.

He saw only one person in the vehicle who, to his relief, he recognized as a past acquaintance.

In his evidence at the trial Mr. Godino described a conversation along these lines:

Godino: "I recognize you."

Driver: "From where?"

Mr Godino: "The Golden Star, you used to make pizzas there. I can't recall your name."

Driver: "Rocky. What's yours?"

Godino: "Vince."

Driver: "Vince who?"

Godino: "Vince Godino. Remember I used to come in there with my friends and play - you know, have some coffee and play pool."

Driver: "So what's the problem?"

Godino: "Well, your mate almost ran me off the road back there."

Driver: "So what do you want to do about it?"

Godino: "Well, I wanted to put his head through the windscreen."

Mr Godino then saw the driver turn so that he was facing towards him and raise an arm which held a pistol.

The pistol discharged several shots in succession.

Mr Godino was struck in the arms as he attempted to duck down out of the line of fire.

He then heard the Commodore wheels screeching and the engine revving hard, as it accelerated away.

He noted that the registration number of the car commenced with the letters POY.

Mr Godino was bleeding profusely as he steered his car along Salamander Road and into Clematis Drive where he stopped again.

He attempted to secure some help from residents by calling out and he attracted the attention of Mr and Mrs Vella who resided in Clematis Drive.

They went to his assistance and contacted the police and ambulance services.

Mr Godino, who was lying in their driveway, requested them to write down some information.

Mrs Vella obtained a pen and paper and her note of what she was told was tendered without objection in the trial.

The note read "Rocky, silver Commodore, Golden Star, Brunswick.

Gudino Vince, St Albans, 0418 129 663, Tracy wife".

Counsel for the applicant also indicated that no objection was taken to the introduction into evidence of a conversation which took place in the driveway of Mr Vella's home between Mr Godino and two police members.

That evidence was given by Senior Constable Davis who said that, when asked what had happened, and where was the gunman, Godino said:- "I was shot by a guy I know. His name is Rocky or Rocco. I knew him from the Golden Star Café in Lygon Street, Brunswick. He was driving a silver-coloured late model Commodore sedan. I got the letters of his registration, POY. He shot me with a pistol and then he drove off."

As to where he was when shot, Mr. Godino said:- "Just around the corner in my car. Just as I got to this place I saw him come back again and that's how I got this rego."

Arico was subsequently arrested at Tullamarine Airport in the company of notorious drug dealer Carl Williams at whose home the vehicle POY 007 was subsequently located by the police.

A fired cartridge case was found in the front passenger door pocket of this vehicle.

Material swabbed from the steering wheel was subjected to DNA analysis by a scientific officer named Chris Tzaikou.

He expressed the opinion that it contained biological material contributed to by at least three donors.

The witness calculated that the possibility that the applicant had been one of them was about 27,000 times greater than if the material had been contributed by three unknown persons.

Henry Glaser, a firearms and tool mark examiner, identified the fired bullets and fragments and a fired jacket as being a 9 mm Parabellum ammunition.

He said that all the fired bullets and bullet jackets had been discharged from the same firearm.

Harold Wrobel, a forensic science officer, said that there were no gunshot residues located in the car POY 007, but added that this was of little consequence as this examination was conducted three days after the event.

Senior Sergeant Benedetti stated that, between 1985 and 1996, he was a Sergeant of Police at Brunswick Police Station.

He was familiar with a café in Sydney Road, Brunswick known as Dante's Café owned by two men named Tony Arico and John Arico.

From time to time he would see a young boy there, whom he knew as Rocco.

He identified the applicant as this person.

Tony Arico and John Arico were also connected with another business in Brunswick, known as Jupiter's Café.

There was also a café/pool hall and amusement parlour in the rear of those premises called the Golden Star Café.

As the witness recalled it, in later years the applicant worked on occasion behind the counter at the Golden Star or Jupiter's Café.

Detective Senior Constable Dean gave evidence that the address in Salamander Drive which Mr Godino gave as the location where the Statesman vehicle was parked was the residence at the time of a person known to the applicant.

On July, 2000, the witness showed Mr Godino a photo board containing 12 photographs of different men, each of which had been digitally altered so as to depict the subject with a blackened right eye.

The applicant was one of those persons depicted.

He was identified by Mr Godino as the person he earlier recognized.

He said, however, that at the time of the shooting the applicant did not have a blackened eye.

As we understand the position, it was common ground that the applicant on his arrest had become involved in an altercation with the some of the arresting police during which he received injuries to his head and face.

Afterwards, he was seen to have a blackened left eye.

Although at the trial the suggestion was raised that his left eye might already have been blackened at the time of the attack on Mr Godino, there was no evidence to support this proposition save that of a pathologist, Dr. Byron Collins.

He said that he had been supplied with some material, including hospital admission notes and a set of photographs taken of the applicant on 18 July 2000 and he expressed the opinion that the black eye injury could have been present on 15 July.

He agreed that he had never seen the applicant.

The presence of a blackened left eye, if there was anything to suggest that the applicant had earlier sustained such an injury, could have undermined the purported recognition of the applicant by the complainant but there was literally nothing in the evidence that was capable of breathing even a flicker of life into this conjectural possibility.

Detective Senior Constable Dean said that he had obtained the driver's licence photograph of the applicant's cousin who was also known as Rocco Arico.

Two copies of that photograph were tendered.

In appearance the person shown in those photographs is distinctly different from both the applicant himself and the photographs of the applicant tendered in evidence.

The applicant stood mute at the trial but adduced evidence from three witnesses.

The evidence of the first, Richard Byron Collins, has already been mentioned.

Antonio Gelsomino, the second witness, stated that with two other persons, Giovanni Arico and Gaetano Pasano, he opened the Golden Star Café on 5 December 1989.

He stated that they conducted a pizza shop business in adjoining premises in Lygon Street.

His partner Giovanni Arico had a son called Rocky or Rocco who sometimes worked in the shop making pizzas or coffee.

This partner's brother, Tony Arico, also had a son called Rocco who was the applicant.

The applicant never worked in the restaurant although he occasionally came in with his father to play pool.

Giovanni Arico, the third witness called by the defence, stated that he had a son, Rocco, who was born in 1974.

He stated that when his son was a teenager he would come in after school and work in the pizza shop.

He stated that his brother Tony is the applicant's father and that the applicant had never worked at the Golden Star Café.

In 1992 he said the applicant would have been aged about 14.

He also asserted that a boy of that age would be too short or small to be able to make a pizza with the ovens that they had.

On June 27, 2001, Justice John Coldrey said the shooting of a trapped motorist had brought a new and intolerable danger to road users

He jailed 22-year-old Rocco Arico for nine years with a minimum of seven after Arico was found guilty of attempting to murder Vincenzo Godino.

In the Supreme Court, Justice Coldrey said Arico fired six shots from a powerful handgun into the parked car of Vincenzo Godino, 29.

Mr Godino, secured by his seatbelt, was hit five times.

He was struck on his forearms, abdomen, right elbow and shoulder and feared at any moment he would be dead.

On December 17, 2001, Rocco Arico and Terrence Chimirri pleaded guilty to kidnapping for ransom over the incident on August 2, 1999.

The court heard that Dino Dibra was the architect of the daylight kidnapping in Ardeer.

On December 20, 2001, Arico, Chimirri and Kocoglu were jailed for more than four years.

Chimirri appeared overjoyed at his prison term and celebrated loudly as he was led to the County Court cells.

Chimirri and his two co-accused high-fived each other as they left the court to begin their sentences.

Judge Graham Anderson said Dino Dibra wanted money he believed the victim owed him.

The judge said the others were led in the scheme by Dibra.

Judge Anderson jailed Arico for four and a half years, increasing his minimum remaining term to more than seven years' jail.

Chimirri was ordered to serve a minimum of two years' jail.

Kocoglu was also jailed for four and a half years.

Adam Shand, the excellent Bulletin journalist, wrote that On April 15, 2003, career criminal, Nik Radev and a companion were travelling in his black late-model Mercedes coupe in company with a third man, who was driving behind them in a silver Toyota.

At about 4.35pm the Mercedes parked near neighbourhood shops at the side of Queen St and about 25m from the intersection of Reynard St.

The Toyota pulled up next to it.

The three men then got out and began talking by the roadside.

A shooter and a getaway driver had been sitting in a car in Queen Street, waiting to intercept Radev and shoot him as he got out of his car.

The shooter's car drew up alongside Radev, and a man allegedly jumped out and poured rounds from a revolver and a pistol into Radev's back and head.

Radev's body was found in the street beside his car.

Police said they had two witnesses who were on the scene and that they had confessed to having a hand in the conspiracy to kill Radev.

One helped lure the gangster to the killing ground, the other even drove the getaway car.

Both nominated the late Andrew ''Benji'' Veniamin as the shooter, but who ordered the killings is a matter of great dispute.

Shand also wrote that the driver of the getaway car had history with Radev.

A year before, in Port Phillip prison, this man had interceded in a dispute between Radev and another prisoner, Rocco Arico.

There, had been oaths of revenge sworn.