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Showing posts with label Finks MC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Finks MC. Show all posts

Thursday, January 16, 2020

No bikies jailed under tougher new laws

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (January 16, 2020) BTN — Not one bikie has been jailed under Queensland's "tougher" consorting laws aimed at cracking down on motorcycle clubs involved in drugs, guns and fraud.

Despite 389 official warnings for consorting, only three people were charged last financial year, the Queensland Public Interest Monitor revealed. Those people were still before the courts.

Since the Palaszczuk government's "stronger and tougher laws" came into effect in 2017, two people have been convicted of habitual consorting.


The law banned outlaw motorcycle club members from wearing club colours in public and made it illegal for a person to habitually consort with two or more recognised offenders after being warned by police not to do so.

While no one had been convicted in at least two years, the report showed 237 pre-emptive verified warnings were issued in 2018-19 as well as 152 retrospective verified warnings and 129 consorting preventative directions.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said despite the lack of convictions the laws were working and were "the strongest, most comprehensive laws" in the nation. "The relatively small number of convictions in relation to habitual consorting laws demonstrates that members of outlaw motorcycle gangs know police will target them if they breach those laws," he said.

"The evidence shows that the vast majority of people issued with a habitual consorting notice are complying with the conditions imposed because they know not to do so will result in them being targeted by police."

LNP police spokesman Trevor Watts said the laws were "weak" and not working. “Bikies get a slap on the wrist and then Labor sends them back out into the community in no time," he said.

“Accused bikies were kept on remand and communities were kept safe under the LNP, but Annastacia Palaszczuk replaced tough laws with her weak consorting offence.

“The LNP will deliver action by bringing back our anti-consorting laws and cracking down on gun crime – we already have laws before the Parliament that include tougher penalties and new offences."

Related | Anti-consorting legislation to tackle organised crime


The bill Mr Watts referred to was introduced in May and would allow “high-risk” Queenslanders to be searched by police at any time, without a warrant. Mr Ryan said outlaw motorcycle club memberships were declining. "Many are throwing in their colours and many are behind bars," he said.

He said since the laws were introduced, 132 full patched members had disaffiliated and more than 2000 bikies had been charged with 11,735 offences.

Former Supreme Court justice Peter Lyons, who authored the report, said legislation was implemented on a district level, which allowed "policing resources to be quickly directed".

"There is no single centralised unit or individual responsible for state-wide monitoring and co-ordination of the way in which consorting is operationalised on a day-to-day basis," he wrote.

SOURCE: Brisbane Times 

Friday, October 19, 2018

Finks MC: High ranking member pleads guilty to 1st ever order

Newcastle, NSW (October 19, 2018) BTN — Toast with beetroot and feta, a flat white, two months in jail and the state's first ever conviction for breaching a Serious Crime Prevention Order.

Former high-ranking Finks bikie Troy Vanderlight only ordered the first two when he sat down for a light lunch with the president of the Gladiators Port Stephens chapter at the Heritage Gardens cafe at Ashtonfield in August.

Police photograph Troy Vanderlight's Finks vest during raids earlier this year. 

But when Strike Force Raptor investigators got a tip-off, it turned out that the time in jail and the conviction for contravening the order, imposed by the NSW Supreme Court in April in an unprecedented attempt to put a stop to the Hunter's violent bikie “civil war”, were also on the menu.

Vanderlight was one of five Finks, as well as five Nomads, hit with the strict 12-month orders, which banned them from associating with any member of any bikie gang.

And ironically, Vanderlight was meeting with the Gladiator to discuss how he could attend a funeral without breaching the orders.

“He was breaching the orders to see how he could avoid breaching the orders,” Magistrate John Chicken said on Friday.

Vanderlight, 27, who police allege was the Newcastle president of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang, and who twice had his house shot up during the tit-for-tat attacks earlier this year, had pleaded not guilty to contravening the serious crime prevention order and two other charges after his arrest outside the Ashtonfield cafe on August 17. He was due to face a hearing in Maitland Local Court on Friday, but pleaded guilty to contravening the order - the first of its kind in NSW - after prosecutor Benjamin Bickford agreed to withdraw the other two charges.

Mr Chicken said there was nothing to suggest the lunch meeting on August 17 was for a “nefarious purpose” and noted the conflict earlier this year had not involved the Gladiators.

Mr Chicken also said a discrepancy in the NSW Supreme Court orders meant he could not be satisfied that Vanderlight was the Newcastle president of the Finks. That fact reduced the objective seriousness of the offence and he ordered Vanderlight serve an 18-month community corrections order, the new equivalent of a good behaviour bond, that Mr Chicken said would test Vanderlight’s claims that he was no longer a member of the Finks.  

Vanderlight remains in jail, refused bail on charges of affray and participating in a criminal group relating to an alleged brawl with a member of the Newcastle Nomads in a car park of Charlestown Square in January this year.

And, despite serving his time for breaching the Serious Crime Prevention Order, Vanderlight might be destined to live under even more stringent conditions, with the matter listed again in the NSW Supreme Court next Thursday to vary the conditions against him. 


Monday, September 24, 2018

Finks MC members charged over road rage incident

Lithgow, NSW (September 24, 2018) BTN — Four members of the Finks MC have been charged by Strike Force Raptor over an alleged road rage incident in the Blue Mountains.

Just before 3.30pm on Saturday, June 9, a group of Finks MC members and associates were travelling city bound on motorcycles and in cars on the Great Western Highway, Blaxland, when they allegedly became involved in an altercation with the occupants of a white BMW at traffic lights at Layton Avenue.

Confiscated vest of a Finks MC Member

A short time later, officers from Blue Mountains Police Area Command drove across the incident and spoke to those who were on scene, however, many of the riders had already left the scene. Police were told the BMW and one of the bikes collided, causing the rider to come off the bike. He was not injured.

Members of the group then allegedly hit and kicked the BMW while the occupants remained inside.
Officers from the Criminal Groups Squad’s Strike Force Raptor also attended the scene and assisted with speaking to the remaining members of the group before commencing an investigation.

During the searches, police seized Finks MC colours and paraphernalia, cannabis, and other items relevant to the investigation.

Three Finks MC members – aged 22, 27, and 47 – were arrested during the operation and taken to Riverstone Police Station.

An unidentified Finks MC member is arrested
The 27-year-old man was charged with affray and destroy/damage property intend criminal activity of group.

He appeared at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday, September 22.

The 22-year-old man was charged with affray, knowingly participate in criminal group assist crime, and possess prohibited drug.

The 47-year-old man was charged with affray, destroy/damage property intend criminal activity of group, and possess prohibited drug.
They were granted strict conditional bail and are due to appear at Mt Druitt Local Court on Wednesday, October 10.

A fifth search warrant was executed at a home at Dapto, where investigators arrested a 20-year-old man.

He was taken to Lake Illawarra Police Station and charged with destroy/damage property intend criminal activity of group and two counts of possess prohibited drug.

The man, who is a Finks MC prospect, was granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear at Port Kembla Local Court on Wednesday, October 17.

Inquiries are continuing and further arrests are expected.

Strike Force Raptor was established in 2009 and conducts proactive investigations and intelligence-based, high-impact policing operations to prevent and disrupt conflicts, and dismantle any network engaged in serious organised criminal activity.


Friday, April 6, 2018

Raptor police tackle NSW bikie conflict

Newcastle, AU (April 5, 2018) BTN — Thirteen alleged outlaw motorcycle club members have been charged after raids in the NSW Hunter region with a specialist police squad staying in town to stop what's being called the biggest bikie conflict in NSW.

Thirty-one properties, from Muswellbrook to Newcastle, were targeted in Thursday's large-scale sting involving more than 280 police officers cracking down on the escalating conflict between rival clubs - the Finks and the Nomads.



Weapons, explosive detonators, guns, drugs and reptiles were seized, while 11 of those arrested were charged with participating in a criminal group and two were charged with drug offences.

Strikeforce Raptor, the squad of officers most reviled by the OMCG underworld, will remain in the region to support local police until the conflict ends.

The raids follow an investigation into the ongoing "civil war" between the two clubs, believed to have begun in late 2016, when a former Nomads bikies switched allegiance by "patching over" to the Finks.



There have since been a string of incidents, from assaults to drive-by shootings and firebombings, each more serious than the last.

In an affidavit tendered to the NSW Supreme Court last week, Sergeant Gary Broadhurst said the Hunter conflict was the most significant bikie war occurring in NSW.

The 13 men charged were granted strict conditional bail, with nine scheduled to appear at Newcastle Local Court on May 3 and the remaining four due to appear at the same court on April 26.


Thursday, March 15, 2018

High ranking Finks MC member charged

Sydney, Australia (March 15, 2018) BTN  —  A high-ranking Finks bikie has been refused bail after police raids discovered guns, ammunition and drugs with an estimated street value of $4 million. Martin Francis Klein, 35, was arrested while visiting a storage case in a residential carpark in Sydney's north-west on Wednesday.

A day earlier, police had executed a search warrant on the cage at Kellyville Ridge, with officers uncovering more than 17 kilograms of MDA pills, 1.7kg of powder suspected to be cocaine, and more than 67kg of powders believed to be MDA, assorted pre-curser chemicals, two firearms, a silencer and ammunition.


An unknown member of the Finks Motorcycle Club 

Detective Superintendent Deborah Wallace said the amount of drugs uncovered was significant.

"That is capable of producing what we would say conservatively [is] 200,000 individual pills at an estimated street value of $4 million."

Following Mr Klein's arrest, police also seized a revolver, ammunition, encrypted phones, a hydrogen chloride gas cylinder and various documents during raids on a unit at the same complex and a home at Beaumont Hills.

Ammo seized from the raid

Police step up investigation of bikie feud

Detective Superintendent Wallace said the raids were part of ongoing investigations into violent conflicts between outlaw motorcycle gangs across NSW, and in particular, a dispute between the Finks and the Nomads.

"We are always investigating every crime these criminal groups and outlaw motorcycle gangs are involved in, but particularly where we're seeing violent conflicts — when we're seeing the potential of innocent people being harmed through reckless, ad hoc, random shootings — then we step it up," she said.

She said police managed conflicts between outlaw motorcycle gangs by going "straight to the cause of these conflicts which is usually over turf, money owed [or] drugs".

"So by taking out the catalyst for these disputes is often a way of resolving them for the community."

She said police would be alleging that, as a senior member of the Finks, Mr Klein was a "key player" in the drugs distribution network.

She said police were expecting to make more arrests.

"The bottom line is, if you want to get involved in these conflicts and violence then we will throw every resource we can at it."

Mr Klein on Thursday appeared at Blacktown Local Court on charges of commercial drug supply and 15 firearms offences.

He was refused bail and the matter was adjourned to Parramatta Local Court on March 22.

SOURCE: ABC dot net

Monday, November 28, 2016

Robert the builder tells of life inside a Finks MC chapter

Ex member now fears for his life after snitching to cops

RINGWOOD, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA ( November 27, 2016) —A MAN who made the mistake of hanging out with a Motorcycle Club has given a terrifying account into life inside the Finks MC clubhouse.

Builder Robert Bolsdon claims he got mixed up with the Finks after he agreed to do some work for at a warehouse that just happened to be the club’s Ringwood chapter headquarters.

He appeared before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last week via video link where four of his former buddies are accused of a conspiracy to bash him, among other offences.

Mr Bolsdon claimed he built a nice stage, a bar and installed a stripper pole but never got around to finishing the toilet and shower.

Inside, club supporters would pay $100 a month for the privilege of drinking with members — paying $5 a drink no matter what they ordered.

The Finks Motorcycle Club was formed in 1969 in Adelaide, Australia 

The “prospects” would run the bar, open the clubhouse gates for fully patched members and generally behave as servants, Mr Bolsdon said. It could take years before a prospect earned their full patch.

Full patched members would fork out $250 a month to wear the patch, and fees were to be paid no matter what.

Mr Bolsdon said chapter president John Napolitano would control the visitors “like a cult” and allegedly order club members to bash members or prospects.

Violent outbursts and random beatings were common on Friday nights, where up to 50 people would gather to get drunk, Mr Bolsdon said.

The victims were usually blow-ins, who foolishly thought it might be fun to drink with the Finks.

“They always waited until these people were drunk then laid into them,” Mr Bolsdon said. “I don’t know why they did it.”

Former member Caleb Hardwick said one member would bash people he simply did not like the look of. Friday was also the night where club members would hold their “church” meetings.

Mr Hardwick alleged everything from member fees to planning crimes would be discussed there. Like Mr Bolsdon, the Finks had plans to bash him, too, after he quit the club without paying his $10,000 exit fee or handing over his patch and motorcycle.

Mr Bolsdon, who went on club rides dressed as a fully patched member, said things went bad for him after he made the mistake of asking to be paid for the renovations he’d made to the clubhouse.

Police remove a Motorcycle from the Finks Clubhouse in Ringwood, Australia 

He was assaulted and alleged members blew up his car.

Mr. Hardwick stopped attending church meetings. In October last year, he said he wanted out, and then he left without paying. Instead, he ratted on his former mates to police and now lives a life of fear.

Finks members will appear in court throughout next week as a part of Victoria Police’s Operation Irrevocable.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Rebels MC killing their own?

Sydney, Australia (June 4, 2016) Rebels MC member Michael Davey was known as the Prince of Penrith, a title that earned him the praise of friends and fellow bikers alike.

But it appears this sense of brotherhood may have faltered in his final hours: police are investigating whether his comrades were behind his execution.

Mr Davey – nicknamed Ruthless – was gunned down on home turf in Sydney's west on March 30.
The 30 year old had been a stone's throw from the home he shared with his girlfriend in Stafford Street, Kingswood, when someone opened fire.

He had been a well-known member of the Rebels MC, members of which flocked in droves to pay their respects at his funeral.

Michael Davey in happier times

Davey had been on the police radar since his late teens and was facing trial for drug supply when he was killed.

Tattoos across his body pledged an allegiance to the club but Fairfax Media understands Mr Davey wanted to leave.

Homicide detectives are looking closely at a few potential motives for his death, including that Mr Davey was shot and killed under direction from his own club when he wanted to patch out.

However, police can't discount the possibility that a conflict between the Finks and Rebels motorcycle clubs in the city's north-west, or a disagreement stemming had something to do with his death.

Sources say he was close to Mark Easter, who held a level of seniority as sergeant at arms of the Rebels Sydney chapter.

Easter was executed nine months before his younger brother. Both men left behind young sons, whom friends say they cared for.

While the killings are thought to be unrelated, it is understood police believe Easter's murder was plotted from within the club after he put someone "off side".

Easter, remembered by friends as a "loving father and honest man", left his Little Bay home after having dinner with his partner Biancha Simpson in June 2015, and was not seen alive again.

Investigators say there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about him leaving the house that night, but they believe he was killed shortly afterwards.

Rebels MC at a glance

His body was dumped a few days later just off the Pacific Highway at Cowan, north of Sydney.

Police believe Easter's murderer didn't act alone.

"He is a fair-sized man and in order to dump his body, it would have required more than one person," Homicide Squad Detective Chief Inspector David Laidlaw said in April.

The club has been plagued by internal conflicts and patch outs ever since their national leader, Alex Vella, was left exiled in Malta when his Australian visa was cancelled.


Monday, March 7, 2016

Two Dead - Six-Hour Standoff in Sydney

Two Dead After Dispute Between Australian Bikers Leads to Six-Hour Standoff in Sydney

A member of the Finks MC in Australia

SIDNEY, AUSTRALIA  (March 7, 2016) — On Monday morning, an apparent rivalry between motorcycle clubs became violent when one club member entered a sign-making shop in Sydney and opened fire. After an hours-long standoff with police, the gunman — who has since been identified as Wayne Williams, 33 – shot himself dead.

Local news reports said Williams entered the factory, which is in an industrial suburb southwest of Sydney, around 10.45 am. Police say he was carrying a long firearm.

Mick Bassal, 43, died at the scene. Detective Inspector Mark Brett said at a press conference that when they arrived, they found "three males, one deceased and two others with gunshot wounds." The two injured are Bassal's brothers. They were transported to a nearby hospital, where one underwent emergency surgery.

Williams, the gunman, reportedly belongs to the Finks Motorcycle Club, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. Bassal, the victim, owned the sign business and had ties to the Rebels Motorcycle Club.

Police say they surrounded the factory upon arrival and began negotiations with Williams. One man was arrested at the scene for allegedly hindering police operations. Three people reportedly left the building shortly before Williams shot himself, but it is not clear whether they were hostages.

The area surrounding the sign factory was reportedly on lock down. Police evacuated businesses, and escorted employees to shelter under police protection.

Rogan Burns, an employee at a nearby entertainment agency, said that police were treating the situation very seriously.

"My colleague actually left to go and get the boss a cake for his birthday," Burns said. "The police came screaming in the vehicles and just told everyone to get back inside."

Police say they don't believe the siege was terrorism related.

According to the Australian Crime Commission (ACC), motorcycle clubs or "bikie clubs" as they're known locally are "the most identifiable components of Australia's criminal landscape." The ACC says there are clubs active throughout the country – 44 clubs are on their radar, with a grand total of 179 chapters and 4,483 members. About 25 percent of those members reportedly belong to the Rebels – the same club that Mick Bassal reportedly had ties to.

Members of the Finks MC rolling on their Motorcycles

In December 2014, a hostage situation in Sydney made international headlines when self-described sheikh, Mar Haron Monis, entered a cafe with a gun and declared allegiance to the Islamic State. A tense 16-hour standoff ensued, with Monis holding 18 customers and employees hostage.

Monis had reportedly tried to join the Rebels Motorcycle Club, but his application was rejected because the club decided he was unstable and untrustworthy.