Finks outlaw bikie gang facing financial ruin, Victoria Police say

OUTLAW bikie gang the Finks has hit the skids with the group crippled by mounting legal bills, Victorian police have said.

Jye Carter

OUTLAW bikie gang the Finks has hit the skids with the group crippled by mounting legal bills, Victorian police have said.

Once the most feared bikie group in the state, police believe the Finks’ are now in the midst of a financial crisis that was behind a string of planned extortions aimed at boosting the club’s coffers.

“The club is not in a very good financial position,” Det Snr Constable Claire Turner told the Melbourne Magistrates Court.

“We have a number of intelligence reports that the club is concerned about the ability to pay its legal bills.”

Detective Turner said club members had used a series of weekly “church meetings” to plan a string of extortions to try and fund itself.

Court documents allege members involved in the weekly Wednesday meetings discussed ways to extort money from associates.

Carter is facing charges including aggravated burglary and conspiracy to commit extortion.

One plan allegedly involved doing a “run through” of an associate’s house.

“Open up on him ... then we meet somewhere burn all our clothing and everything and go home and sleep,” one member was allegedly recorded saying.

In another recorded “church meeting” police allege members discussed reclaiming a $10,000 “exit fee” from a former member.

Members also allegedly discussed creating fake Facebook accounts disguised as attractive females to lure their intended victims into their traps.

Police allege president John Napolitano was recorded talking about the club’s finances and hatching plans to increase funds.

Finks members allegedly planned a string of extortions to raise funds.

“There’s f***ing money here for our taking boys, we got a big ride coming up soon, we need money to get this bar going,” he allegedly said.

Napolitano is among a string of the club’s top brass facing charges alongside sergeant-at-arms Jye Carter.

Carter unsuccessfully applied for bail and is facing charges of breaching bail, aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit extortion and possessing a firearm.

Prosecutors argued Carter posed an unacceptable risk of reoffending, failing to reappear at court and interfering with witnesses.

Eighteen Finks are facing jail time after being arrested in a series of raids across Melbourne last month that followed a four-month police investigation into the club’s Ringwood chapter.

Police performed covert surveillance and used listening devices to monitor the member’s activities during the Operation Irrevocable.

The Finks are not the first outlaw motorcycle club to be plagued by legal woes.

Last year the Hells Angels were reportedly told by their international leadership that they would receive no more funding to fight court cases.

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