Found another route to go.. still .htaccess, but a different syntax that separates out the testing of the referrer from the forbidding of the referrer.
# Deny access to all with status "banned"
SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://([a-z0-9\-]+\.)?sweetfreestuff\.com.*$" banned
# Enable Rewrite mode
Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
# 301-Redirect to themselves
RewriteCond %{ENV:banned} ^1$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^(.*)$
# In any case => 403-Forbidden Page
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from env=banned