OFF THE WIRE
By: Bethany Lindsay, ctvbc.ca
Date: Tuesday Nov. 30, 2010 9:23 PM PT
B.C.'s highest court has tossed a Hells Angels appeal to cancel the government forfeiture of the motorcycle gang's clubhouse in Nanaimo.
The club's hangout in the Vancouver Island town and the lots it sat on were seized by the provincial government in 2007 after a police investigation dubbed "Project Halo."
During that investigation, a combined special forces team searched the clubhouse and turned up unregistered weapons and evidence that the building was used as a "booze can" to sell liquor without a licence. The building was surrounded by at least eight security cameras and the doors were heavily fortified.
Motorcycles, clothing, badges and office equipment were also seized in the forfeiture, but have since been returned to their owners.
However, no criminal charges have been laid in connection to Project Halo.
The motorcycle club made several arguments for rescinding the forfeiture order, including that police had not gathered enough admissible evidence of serious crimes to justify the seizure.
But in a decision dismissing the club's appeal, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Ian Donald wrote that civil matters like forfeiture don't require allegations to be proved beyond a reasonable doubt as in criminal cases.
"The evidence gathered in Project Halo is viable evidence and remains to be tested at the trial of the action on the balance of probabilities. It follows that I reject the proposition that the evidence of illegality falls short of supporting a seizure order," Donald wrote on behalf of a three-member panel.
