Alleged gang members, the mastermind behind a murder and even those who've claimed they want to change their ways have found themselves in familiar territory once again in 2023.
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Like clockwork, some of the Illawarra's most notorious crime figures wound up before Wollongong courthouse this year to confess to their actions from the petty to the ultra-violent.
Some of these recidivist offenders have made headlines in the Mercury for over a decade - and 2023 was no different.
Three out of the four in the list below are awaiting punishment for their latest crimes from behind bars.
Here's who made crime headlines - again:
Belinda Van Krevel
Once dubbed Belinda 'Van Evil', the Wollongong woman shot to infamy over her role in organising the murder of her father in 2001.
She was in the adjacent room in an Albion Park house while her friend Keith Schreiber hacked him to death with a tomahawk.
Van Krevel served a six-year jail sentence for her involvement in the killing. Since then, she has continued a life of crime.
In 2014, Van Krevel was jailed for stabbing a previous boyfriend in a Sydney apartment.
She was jailed again in 2017 for stealing an elderly woman's handbag, and returned to court in 2022 for a bizarre magazine heist.
In November 2023, Van Krevel solidified another serious offence on her record when she confessed to stabbing her boyfriend John Green after a verbal in a kebab shop.
Mr Green tried to call himself an ambulance, however, Van Krevel stood over him and stabbed him again, laughing as she said: "You can't get anyone better than me".
Troy Fornaciari
It was another year of 'Tuff Luck' for Troy Fornaciari, so says the tattoo inscribed on his eye lids.
The one-time high-ranking Finks bikie has become one of the Illawarra's most instantly recognisable criminals, courtesy of his facial ink which includes 'Not Guilty' in running script on his left cheek.
In 2019, Fornaciari told a court he wanted to remove his tattoos and start a new life. That year, he was sentenced to jail for three years and six months for an affray.
More recently, the father-of-one was arrested by tactical police in 2022 on drug supply and wounding charges.
He was set to face a trial in August 2023 after he pleaded not guilty, however, he made an 11th hour confession minutes before it was about to begin.
"Yeah, I'm guilty," Fornaciari admitted at Wollongong District Court.
Fornaciari was in thousands of dollars of debt when he wounded a fellow alleged meth dealer, causing a three centimetre gash on his scalp.
Damien Featherstone
In 2018, former Brothers4Life gang leader Damien Featherstone planned to gun down Fornaciari in broad daylight at the Wollongong CBD.
Featherstone started planning the shooting in 2017. He was full of bravado, telling his right-hand man he had the bullets and guns to settle the score.
"Let's rock and roll," he told Andrew Coe in 2018.
He even organised a car to get there. Yet an empty fuel tank and a flat tyre ultimately meant the plans never came to fruition.
Featherstone fled to the ACT after his North Wollongong home was raided and he was locked up in a maximum security Canberra jail for crimes related to an ice-fuelled rampage.
Five years later, in February 2023, he was finally extradited back to Wollongong to face the charges related to the conspiracy to shoot Fornaciari.
He pleaded guilty to the failed plot in September.
Jacob Kyosti Nyrhinen
One-time Finks bikie associate Jacob Nyrhinen revealed in court this year that he wore a knife around his neck to protect himself from Fornaciari.
Nyrhinen was brutally bashed by Fornaciari in 2017 after he crashed Fornaciari's $60,000 Harley Davidson during a ride in Dapto.
A few years later, Nyrhinen was stabbed 17 times by six inmates while on remand for serious domestic violence offences, after he terrorised his ex-partner.
Police pulled Nyrhinen over in May 2022 for a random breath test and busted him wearing an 18-centimetre steel knife around his neck.
He told officers he wore the weapon for "protection - with people like Troy Fornaciari after me".
Nyrhinen pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced in July 2023.