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Guest Character Profiles > Joey Dimato Steven Sammut

Joey Dimato 2015

One of Dennis Dimato's associates, as well as his nephew, Joey could frequently be spotted hanging around outside Grease Monkeys burger bar, which Dennis had recently acquired. With Dennis already making enemies around Erinsborough, he had to make a few threats to avoid the police getting involved, but Naomi Canning decided that she wasn't going to let him intimidate her or her family. After making her statement to the police, Naomi spotted Joey and told him to tell Dennis that the Dimatos had now made an enemy of the whole Canning family, and that there were a lot of them!

A couple of weeks later, the Dimatos were still making their presence felt in the area - when Amber Turner was given a photography assignment by the local newspaper, looking at the way some of the buildings in the area had changed over the years, she was taking pictures of Grease Monkeys when Joey got annoyed, believing that she was taking photos of him. He quickly started threatening her, and her ex-boyfriend Josh stepped in, with a fight only being avoided because Amber reminded Josh that he was still on a good behaviour bond. Later that week, Joey was also annoying Amber's dad, Matt, a local cop who'd been moonlighting as a security guard for Dimato. Joey enjoyed rubbing Matt's nose in that fact, but when Sheila caught Joey about to steal some keys and a phone that had been left on a table in the bar, she quickly called on Matt, who knew that he couldn't risk arresting Joey. After telling Sheila that he'd deal with the matter, Matt took Joey away and warned him to stop causing trouble. Joey, however, wasn't even slightly intimidated, and reminded Matt that he couldn't do anything about it, as he was 'one of them' now.

Joey continued to hang around like a bad smell, turning his attentions to Tyler Brennan, the mechanic who worked at the garage opposite Grease Monkeys, and whose older brother, Mark had recently rejoined the police force, and made it his mission to bring down Dennis Dimato. As Tyler found himself doing 'favours' for Dimato, which generally involved stealing cars, Joey and another of Dimato's associates, Michelle, spotted that he was constantly being belittled by Mark over his behaviour and they used this to their advantage, with Joey taking Tyler and his friend Nate out for a beer, and Michelle playing on Tyler's anger at his brother, and encouraging him to make some more extra money by stealing more cars. When Dimato bought the garage and Michelle took over the running of things, Tyler found himself trapped doing their dirty work, stripping the stolen cars in the evenings. Having arranged a date with Imogen Willis one night, Tyler was irritated when Joey approached him and said that a new car would be dropped off at the garage that night. Tyler explained that he might be late, and to leave it on the forecourt with the keys under the passenger seat. Unfortunately, when things went badly with Imogen, Tyler went out partying all night and forgot about the car, which was found, and stolen, by a troubled Bailey Turner early the next morning.

Tyler was forced to continue helping Michelle after this, and was joined by Paige, Bailey's half-sister who was determined to conceal the fact that he was a car thief. After weeks of helping out with Michelle's illegal activities, Paige and Michelle had a near miss when the police almost caught them dropping off some stolen car parts, and a shaken Michelle agreed to Paige's idea that they might still be able to pay Dimato by making the business legit. Their first plan to make more money was to run classes teaching mechanics, but the day ended badly when Naomi managed to get grease all over her expensive bag and demanded that they pay for a replacement. Their plan to go straight was then challenged further when Joey turned up with a bag and said that he'd been told by someone - not Michelle - to leave it with them. When they opened it, they were shocked to realise that it was full of money.

After some of the money then went missing, Paige and Tyler were forced to continue working for Dimato and Michelle, but tried to avoid any further illegal activities by making the business legit. Their plan wasn't a huge success, and as the situation worsened, Tyler ended up confessing everything to Mark, as the net closed in on him. Facing serious charges, Tyler agreed to a plan to wear a wire during a meeting with Michelle and Joey, and try to get enough information to finally catch them out. Unfortunately, as Joey started play fighting with Tyler, he damaged the recording equipment, and the police failed to get anything. Tyler did, however, tell them that Dimato was due back in the country and they realised that, rather than arresting his henchmen, they might actually be able to get Dimato himself. The following week, Dimato returned, managing to grab Tyler, and dispose of his phone, before he could tell the police where the meeting was taking place. With no way of letting anyone know where he was, Tyler decided to try to grab some evidence and escape, and he swiped a phone which had photos of the next batch of stolen cars. Unfortunately, he was quickly caught, but Joey had already made a big mistake, after Paige called him and started flirting, and he told her where he was. She and Mark were soon outside the warehouse, and just as it looked like Tyler was about to be bundled into a van and disposed of, they swooped in and caught Dimato and Michelle, but Joey managed to make his escape in the chaos.

During the weeks that followed, Paige started to fear that Joey was stalking her, in revenge for helping to send his uncle to prison, and her fears only worsened when she found that her punching bag had been ripped to shreds in the back garden using a pair of shears. A couple of weeks later, Paige was home alone when Joey suddenly appeared and started to threaten her. She managed to get in a call to Mark and although he didn't answer, he eventually heard the message she'd left - a conversation between her and Joey, and he rushed over to the house with police back-up, only to find that Paige had already dealt with the situation - Joey was lying on the ground, tied up with an apple stuffed in his mouth.

Trivia Notes
• Steven Sammut previously appeared as an unnamed bar person in 2009, and as Anton Bridges in 2013

Episodes Featured
7053, 7071, 7074, 7093, 7113, 7130, 7162, 7167, 7183

Biography by Steve