AUSTRALIA - Cops step up war on Hells Angels

OFF THE WIRE
ADAM SHAND 
 The Australian
 VIDEO - Cops step up war on Hells Angels
NSW police are moving to fast-track an application to have the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club declared a criminal organisation under amended gang legislation following public violence allegedly connected to inter-club conflicts.
Senior police have told The Australian that Commissioner Andrew Scipione has ordered that paperwork required for a declaration of the Hells Angels under the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act be completed within three weeks.
The police move came as a member of the United Motorcycle Council of Australia told The Australian that inaccurate and inflammatory reporting on incidents in NSW and Queensland was fanning potential conflicts.
He said the wounding of a Bandidos MC member at a Gold Coast shopping centre on the weekend had been wrongly linked to a dispute with the Hells Angels.
"This was a domestic dispute between mates who have fallen out. Nothing to do with Hells Angels whatsoever," said the bikie, who declined to be named.
Police are investigating whether the incident, which left a 53-year-old female bystander wounded in the buttocks, was linked to the expulsion of a Bandidos Gold Coast member from the club last Friday night.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Mal Lanyon confirmed yesterday that NSW police were working on a declaration but would not comment on which club would be targeted or the timing of the move.
It's understood it will take several months before police could move against the club, but insiders said banning of the Hells Angels was a high priority in the battle to address escalating violence between outlaw motorcycle clubs.
The renewed assault on the Hells Angels follows a decision by the High Court last year to declare the NSW act as invalid. The law enabled the police commissioner to seek a declaration from a Supreme Court judge that a group was a criminal organisation.
Police could then seek control orders banning individuals from associating or face five years' imprisonment.
A lawyer for the Hells Angels, Wayne Baffsky, said the club would challenge the new declaration but he doubted whether it would succeed following an extensive redraft of the legislation.
The NSW government had used a political opportunity to create bad legislation that posed a "terrifying" threat to the rule of law.
Mr Baffsky, who is the acting spokesman for the United Motorcycle Council of NSW, said it would take up to six months from the date of a declaration before the club would be ready to respond in court.
"Police have acknowledged that it's only a small number of individuals that are involved in the alleged criminal acts but seek to potentially punish members of all clubs with these laws," said Mr Baffsky.
It's understood that police are also testing amended consorting provisions of the NSW Crimes Act to disrupt outlaw club networks linked to crime in the Newcastle region.
The amendments, passed in February, have turned consorting of habitual criminals from a summary offence into a crime, carrying a maximum penalty of three years' jail.
The offence of consorting, first used to break up criminal gangs in the 1920s and 30s, fell into disuse amid criticism it gave police too much discretion to target individuals.
Mr Baffsky said the new consorting provisions would be a devastating attack on the right of free association. "There will basically be no defence to this offence," he said.
If successful in Newcastle, police will use the laws to break up clubs across the state.
The bikie who spoke to The Australian about the Gold Coast shooting criticised reports of former Nomads president Scott Orrock as a senior Hells Angel member. Orrock, charged last week with torching a police van parked outside his tattoo parlour in inner-Sydney Newtown, had been a prospect for the Hells Angels two years ago but no longer had connections to the club.