OFF THE WIRE
Jessica Grewal
frasercoastchronicle.com.au
Wide Bay Rebels Motorcycle Club president Adam McCrea.
Photo, Alistair Brightman
ADAM McCrea is the first to admit he has been a bad boy.
Almost a decade of his 47 years on the planet has been spent behind bars and during the lowest point, a passion for cocaine and reckless sex resulted in him being alienated from his family.
But it's not the crimes he has been charged and convicted for that the man known as "Big Adam" has a problem with being made public.
It's the constant allegations about things he claims are straight lies directed at a likely culprit.
Most recently Mr McCrea was infuriated by a court case where the defence team for a man on drug production charges suggested the offender had agreed to cook for a drug supplier in exchange for protection from a Rebels member.
The member they were referring to was Mr McCrea and yesterday he refuted any involvement in the case.
The offender in question was Christopher Mackie, a man now in protective custody, who was arrested as part of police operation Ice Bobcat, which targeted organised crime in Hervey Bay.
While the prosecution has referred to the Rebels Motorcycle Club throughout court cases resulting from the operation, Mr McCrea points out that not one current member of the Hervey Bay Chapter was charged as part of Ice Bobcat.
He says it's "irresponsible and unfair" for those in authority to consistently infer his club had involvement in an operation to which not one of his members is subject to a charge.
A previous member had been charged in relation to the operation but Mr McCrea says that person was "moved on".
Mackie claimed he was approached by a man described in court as a key distributor for the Rebels and that the man told him to cook drugs in exchange for protection from Mr McCrea.
Last year Mr McCrea was convicted and fined for assaulting Mackie.
He says he threw an empty coke can at Mackie and had not been in contact with him since.
He also said that while he was familiar with the so-called distributor, they were not friends and he never had a conversation with him involving Mackie.
"I refute allegations of the club's involvement with the production of drugs and the use of standover tactics," Mr McCrea said
"I find it astonishing that statements like that would be allowed to be made in open court when there is not one piece of evidence that suggests our involvement."
In the past few years McCrea has been acquitted on every high-profile charge police have thrown at him.
More recently he was committed to the Maryborough Supreme Court on what he describes as a "weak" cocaine trafficking case.
He admits he had a long association with the drug he "loves" but is now steering clear of, because of court ordered drug testing and what he says is a change in attitude resulting from the positive influence of his partner Therese.
He is also adamant that while he consumed "a lot of coke" in his time, he "never sold a gram".
A jury will be asked whether they believe that is the case some time next year.
In the meantime, Mr McCrea says he wants his club's name to stop being tarnished because "every junkie in town wants to use us as an excuse".
"There is a massive difference between junkies and criminals," Mr McCrea said.
"I am no angel but I am also no junkie. I am a straight-out criminal from the old school.
"I have done some bad things but I have done my time and I'm back on the straight and narrow."