Sidan's father, Muley Hamet, had enjoyed a privileged relationship with Queen Elizabeth I and Giffard's soldiers-of-fortune fought on Sidan's behalf against his other rivals, namely Ahmed ibn Abi Mahalli and Sidi al-Ayachi, and his brother Abou Fares Abdallah, during the country's wars of succession. After the Giffards were killed in a desert skirmish in 1607, many of their men took to piracy. Verney, as told by the Verney family, found refuge with another relative, Richard Giffard, who was captain of the "Fortune", commanding what was essentially a pirate fleet, and Verney is mentioned among his officers. This part of the story was disputed by British historian Adrian Tinniswood who claimed that Giffard was imprisoned in Florentine captivity from 1607 to 1610. Regardless of who served as his pirating mentor, within two years he had become one of the most feared pirates on the Barbary Coast "making havoc of his own countrymen, and carrying into Algiers prizes belonging to the merchants of Poole and Plymouth" by Francis Cottington of the English embassy in Madrid. One of his better known exploits was the capture of merchant vessel bound from Marseilles which was carrying a shipment of French wine for the court of James I. King James grew so concerned over Verney's activities that he assigned a ship-of-war to escort merchant vessels en route for Aleppo in the Levant area. During this period, Verney was one of the four leaders in the Tunisian fleet headed by John Ward, Richard Bishop, and Kara Osman, the latter captain of the Janissaries at Tunis. Simon Danziger and Jan Jansz were also included in the fleet's ranks of Englishmen, Dutchmen, Spaniards, and Turks. Verney served as Ward's second-in-command. In December 1610, according to claims made by the Venetian ambassador in Tunis, he and Ward were accused of "turning Turk" by becoming converts to Islam causing a sensation in royal society when news reached back to England. This was a charge often made against corsairs of European origin as many, Verney included, often adopted the clothing worn by locals after settling in Algiers or Tunis. He was eventually captured by a Sicilian corsair and spent two years in captivity as a galley slave until being ransomed to an English Jesuit. Sir Robert Chamberlain, while in Naples, took a sympathetic interest in his countryman, and traveled to Malta to reclaim him in 1614.