Mongols bikie Andrew Peter Stevens wins expedited hearing against deportation to UK

A SENIOR member of the Mongols outlaw gang fighting a heart condition, arson attacks on his businesses and deportation to the UK has been granted an expedited court hearing.

UP IN SMOKE: Stevens’ torched motorcycle workshop in Ridgehaven. His Australian visa was cancelled in June.

A SENIOR member of the Mongols outlaw gang fighting a heart condition, arson attacks on his businesses and deportation to the UK has been granted an expedited court hearing.

In the Federal Court on Wednesday, counsel for Mongols treasurer Andrew Peter Stevens succeeded in their bid to have his appeal heard next month.

Their victory came just hours after Stevens’ gym, at Thebarton, was burnt in the second arson attack against his businesses in four days.

His other business, Hyperperformance Cycles at Ridgehaven, was lost to fire on Saturday.

Stevens is currently being held in immigration detention on Christmas Island, following the cancellation of his visa in June.

Both he and key Comanchero Paul Burgess were taken into custody when Immigration Minister Peter Dutton ordered their deportation on character grounds.

Hundreds of bikies, sex offenders and drug traffickers have had their visas cancelled, including more than 80 in the past two years.

BLAZE: Police at the scene of the arson attack at Stevens’ Adelaide Gym in Thebarton, the second business targeted.

Adelaide underworld figure Leonard Gjeka was deported to his native Albania in late 2014.

Richmond AFL footballer Dustin Martin’s father had links to bikie gangs and was deported to New Zealand earlier this year.

On Wednesday, Dr Rachael Gray, for Stevens, said her client’s opposition to deportation was based on both constitutional and administrative issues.

She said the administrative issues could and should be argued separately, at an expedited hearing, because they could resolve the case without the need for constitutional argument.

“We say there is a knockout point, raised by a prior case,” she said.

“In that (earlier) case, the Minister failed to consider the risk of harm posed by that person and the court ruled that was an error.

“We say it’s the same point here, and there’s no lack of clarity in that.”

She urged the court to hear the application in September, pointing to Stevens’ ongoing health issues.

“My client has a heart condition and Christmas Island is a considerable distance from the nearest treatment centre,” she said.

Justice Natalie Charlesworth granted the application, ordering the administrative issues be argued next month.