Private school, a $4million home, a Woolworths executive father: Inside the privileged life of teen charged with ramming Newcastle Knights fans in a gold BMW – as neighbours reveal repeated warnings about ‘hooning’
The private schoolboy accused of driving into Newcastle Knights fans – injuring ten people, including young girls – was warned about ‘hooning’ his car up and down the street where he lives in a $4million house.
Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe, who only graduated from Catholic boys’ school Waverley College last year, was known on the quiet, leafy cul-de-sac for his gold BMW with vanity plates – and for the noise it made.
Indika has lived on one of the prettiest streets in Randwick, in Sydney’s east, with his designer-loving mum and younger brother Cassius for almost five years.
Nicola ‘Nik’ Bambrick, a NSW Government service designer who works for the Australian Digital Health Agency, bought her semi-detached four-bedroom home with her sons’ father, Sunil Samarasinghe, in early 2022.
Sunil, who is originally from the UK and is the Head of Technology at the Woolworths Group, lives at a different address in the eastern suburbs, at Woollahra.
On since-deleted social media accounts, Indika appeared to have a carefree life clubbing with friends and travelling overseas with his mother and brother, most recently visiting Japan.
Nicola ‘Nik’ Bambrick in the leafy eastern suburbs street where neighbours recalled her son Indika had ‘hooned’ up and down in his ‘hotted-up’ BMW prior to the Newcastle Knights crash
Indika Bambrick Samarasinghe (left) is pictured with his mother Nik Bambrick (right) and brother Cassius (centre) on a holiday to Japan
Nicola declined to comment, but neighbours said they had ‘seen and heard’ Indika revving the car that was allegedly involved in the crash up and down the street, warning him to be careful
Nicola’s friend told the Daily Mail ‘we don’t want to’ say anything about the crash
Indika got his driver’s licence and started driving the 2006 gold BMW convertible with the registration plate ‘INDIKA’, which he parked on his home street.
According to different neighbours, the vehicle was ‘hotted-up’ and ‘noisy’ as though it lacked conventional soundproofing devices such as a muffler or exhaust baffle.
‘I told him more than once after he was hooning up the street, driving fast when it’s a cul-de-sac for goodness sake, that there are lots of little babies and dogs living on this street,’ one neighbour told the Daily Mail.
‘And he said, “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” Like, he didn’t refuse to listen, he wasn’t rude or arrogant, he was quite polite, but then he was at it again, speeding in his hotted-up car.’
Another resident, however, said they hadn’t seen Indika speeding the car in the street, adding that he, his mother and brother were ‘nice people, good neighbours’, and that Indika was often seen ‘in his school uniform, parking the car across the street’.
But a young mother who lives with her sons and husband in an apartment block on the street said she would often hear Indika’s car ‘going up and down… although I haven’t for a few months.’
Nik Bambrick and Sunil Samarasinghe own the $4million house where she lives with her sons
Neighbours in the Randwick street were shocked when they saw on the news that Indika’s distinctive gold BMW convertible was allegedly involved in the crash that injured 10 people
Indika is the son of Woolworths’ Head of Technology Sunil Samarasinghe (pictured) and professional service designer Nicole ‘Nik’ Bambrick
Indika was reported as having his licence suspended in February this year.
Both his mother and father declined to speak with the Mail, with Nicola Bambrick telling us: ‘I have been told not to say anything.’
When the red P-plater was arrested last Saturday and his distinctive vehicle was shown in media coverage, many of his neighbours were in shock.
One said, ‘Kids make mistakes but he’s just ruined his life, at least for the next few years. I’m sorry for the people who were hurt. I feel for all sides in this.’
NSW Police allege Indika was behind the wheel of the gold BMW when he lost control on the morning of October 3 in Newcastle, north of Sydney.
At the time of the incident, crowds of Knights fans had been waving off the footballers in their team bus ahead of the NRL Grand Final at Wallsend, a western suburb of Newcastle, when they were struck.
Emergency services were called to the Newcastle Link Road roundabout on Transfield Avenue at about 9.30am following reports that a vehicle had hit people standing on the pavement after allegedly driving ‘erratically’.
Sunil Samarasinghe, the father of the accused teen driver, broke cover in Sydney on Thursday
Sunil lives at a different address in the eastern suburbs to Bambrick and their two sons
Before the crash, Indika appeared to be living a carefree life as a privileged teen who had only last year been a private schoolboy at Waverley College
Indika’s 2006 gold BMW (above at the Newcastle crash scene) was a familiar sight on the Randwick street where he lives in a $4m house with his mum and brother
Indika was arrested at the scene and taken to hospital for mandatory testing.
Police charged Indika with three counts of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, three counts of negligent driving occasioning grievous bodily harm and three counts of causing bodily harm by misconduct in charge of a motor vehicle.
Six of the 10 people injured in the incident have been discharged, but four remain in hospital.
A five-year-old girl and a man, 67, were both critically injured in the crash, but their conditions improved to serious but stable.
