Australia, Mercanti's partner raided children's trust fund

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Aja Styles
Source: watoday.com.au/
The partner of notorious Finks bikie Troy Mercanti sat trial yesterday with tears in her eyes, accused of stealing the money set aside for the daughters of two dead members of the rival Coffin Cheaters gang.

Tammy Cherie Kingdon is accused of four counts of stealing and one count of property laundering after more than $53,500 was taken from trust accounts for the daughters of Marc Chabriere and Richard Vickers to buy property, which is now used as the headquarters for rival gang the Finks.

Ms Kingdon was the sole trustee for the money which was raised by the Coffin Cheaters after Mr Chabriere was gunned down in 1998 and Mr Vickers, Mercanti's best friend, was killed in 2000.

Advertisement: Story continues below At the time Mercanti was still a long-standing member of the Coffin Cheaters, but he was later ousted from the club and defected to the Finks, a District Court jury was today told. Ms Kingdon has two sons to Mercanti.

After the bikie deaths, tins were set up at the Coffin Cheaters' five clubhouses to raise funds for the girls, who were then aged 10 and 11.

The court was told Ms Kingdon deposited $12,000 and $15,000 into two Commonwealth Bank accounts, allocated to each of the girls in November 2001, but later removed most of the money, transferring it into her own account before depositing it into a fixed-term account.

The accounts grew due to the interest until August 2008, when the money was again transferred into Ms Kingdon's account. Two weeks later she withdrew $134,000 from her account to buy a property in Balga.

State Prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo told the jury that Ms Kingdon had "cleaned out" the accounts to buy the Finks a headquarters because her partner's loyalties had changed.

"She no longer saw herself as the trustee of the funds but saw them as her own," she said. "The entitlements were for her benefit, for Troy Mercanti and for the Finks."

Defence barrister Stephen Shirrefs argued his client had decided to invest the money in property because it had better growth than a bank account.

"In October 2008 the Finks became the leasees - so what?" he said. "The fact of the matter is that she continues to be the trustee of those funds."

He said she had done nothing unlawful according to the Trust Act 1962 and told jurors they were not to be swayed by their own opinions about Mr Mercanti or motorcycle clubs or any media attention to the case.

The trial continues.