AUSTRALIA - Hells Angels sponsored by franchise of The Coffee Club, other mainstream businesses

OFF THE WIRE
THE Hells Angels in Brisbane have secured "sponsorship" from a franchise of The Coffee Club and a range of other mainstream businesses. The links, detailed on the outlaw motorcycle club's website, underline the relative sophistication of the world's oldest "outlaw" motorcycle outfit, described by one local criminal lawyer as the bikies with "the best business smarts".
Alongside the Jimboomba and Browns Plains branches of The Coffee Club, described as "gold" sponsors by the Hells Angels, there are "platinum" sponsors that include Harley-Davidson dealerships and specialist automotive parts providers.
But there is also property management firm, Strata & Corporate Collections, a Cleveland fried chicken restaurant and an East Brisbane locksmith, Millennium Locks, with motto: "Change the keys, not the locks".
The Hells Angels declined to comment, but removed the "sponsors" page from its website immediately after The Courier-Mail made inquiries.
Millennium Locks, which has close links to the club, was last month the target of an attack by a group of men in ski masks armed with baseball bats that left two people with broken arms.
Michelle O'Callaghan, chief executive of The Coffee Club's four-store franchise in Browns Plains and Jimboomba, said the stores' only financial contribution to the Hells Angels had been for prizes awarded as part of a charity run by the club. The stores' franchisees were Harley-Davidson owners who regularly participated in such rides, she said.
Ms O'Callaghan said the local Hells Angels chapter were "strong supporters of our stores".
"The relationship that The Coffee Club Browns Plains and Jimboomba have with the local branch provides ongoing patronage from its members," she said. "We do not discriminate to any customers and aim to provide a welcoming atmosphere for all."
The Courier-Mail has tracked a changing array of Hells Angels "sponsors" over several months. They have included an Ipswich-based car loans company, a retailer of hydroponic equipment and a nationally-known heavy transport firm.
Bill Payne, managing director of Strata & Corporate Collections, told The Courier-Mail he had sponsored a drag racing bike for the Hells Angels "three or four years ago". The money involved was "not excessive", he said.
Asked about his company's appearance on the club's route81australia.com.au site, Mr Payne said the arrangement had "gone further than I thought it would".
"Obviously it's free advertising for me," he said.
Mr Payne, who is president of the Motorcycle Riders Association of Queensland, stressed he was not a member of the Hells Angels.
Next chapter as business angels
THEY'RE clean-cut entrepreneurs with an award-winning business - meet the next generation of Hells Angels.
Millennium Locksmith owners Bruno and Nuno Da Silva are unlikely poster boys for the Queensland arm of the world's most infamous outlaw motorcycle club.
The Portuguese-born twins, 35, who feature on the professional poker circuit and once ran an Ascot cafe and a fruit shop, first came to public attention winning the "House and Home Trades" gong at the City South News Business Achiever Awards in 2008.
Their close friends include prominent restaurateurs and the owner of a tanning salon chain.
But last month their East Brisbane locksmith shop was embroiled in a spate of bikie-related violence. Police said it was one of two Hells Angels-owned businesses invaded, half an hour apart, by men in balaclavas with baseball bats.
In the brazen daylight attack, which came in a string of attacks on bikie-owned businesses in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, two staff were assaulted and the premises were vandalised.
It was not the first time the Da Silvas have come to the attention of the bikie gxxg task force Hydra.
Nuno's house and car were caught up in a proceeds of crime action in 2009 after Hydra detectives pulled over Bruno and found almost $130,000 cash in an Aldi shopping bag in his car.
The action - which Nuno and his solicitor wife said ruined their contract to buy a Holland Park home - was later dropped after family and friends gave statements that the cash was a gift from guests at their wedding a month before Bruno's arrest.
The guests included Hells Angels Queensland president Errol Gildea, a former business partner and friend of 10 years, who told the court he gave the couple $2000 plus $3000 he owed them for one of a number of loans they gave each other "from time to time".
Prosecutors linked the proceeds of crime action to Nuno's $800 fine for drug possession in 2004 after drug squad police found 50gm of cannabis in his freezer and two vials of steroids he "injected to gain physical size".
Both brothers and their lawyer declined to comment when contacted by The Courier-Mail.
Police blitz bad bikers
COVERT police on motorbikes will hit the road across southeast Queensland this weekend in a crackdown on badly behaved bikers.
The crackdown aims to curb the state's mounting road toll.
State Traffic Support Branch Superintendent Andy Morrow said an incredible 30 per cent of motorists killed on the state's roads were motorcyclists.
Since January 1, 29 bikers and a pillion passenger have died on Queensland's roads.
Supt Morrow said the covert police operation started yesterday and will end tomorrow night.
He said the covert bike fleet would hit the road on the Sunshine Coast, across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, tipping off marked traffic cars when a misdemeanour on the roads was observed.
Queensland's road toll has climbed to 102 deaths since the start of the year, 12 more than the same time last year.
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