South Australian bikies and relatives face ban on owning tattoo parlours

BIKIE gang members and their relatives face bans from operating tattoo parlours in South Australia, and up to four years in prison if they ignore the new law the State Government wants to introduce.

• Surge in Adelaide’s bikie numbers
• Bikies abandon their club rooms as new laws take affect
• Anti-bikie laws cut to ban 10 clubs instead of 27
• The unsolved Adelaide bikie murders

BIKIE gang members and their relatives face bans from operating tattoo parlours in South Australia, and up to four years in prison if they ignore the new law the State Government wants to introduce.

Attorney-General John Rau will today introduce the legislation into State Parliament, following a pledge during the election campaign.

It resembles Queensland laws, introduced under that state’s former Liberal government, which have sparked court challenges from gang members, and follows the July introduction of SA’s new anti-association laws that outlawed 10 groups.

Mr Rau said the move was the first time tattoo parlour ownership had been regulated and would “stamp out dodgy characters” who use such businesses “as a front for illegal activity and organised crime”.

Tattoo parlour operators would be “automatically and permanently disqualified” if they belonged to one of the 10 bikie gangs banned under state law, or were a “close associate” of someone who is.

The Government’s definition of “close associate” includes spouses, domestic partners, parents, brothers, sisters or children of outlaw bikie gang members, or people who live with them.

It extends to people who members can “exercise control or significant influence over”.

Mr Rau said there was an option to apply for an exemption and that the “tough new laws” were needed to drive gangs out of the state.

“We need to tackle the issue of organised crime from every angle possible,” he said.

“This scheme is about cracking down on tattoo parlours that are used as a front for organised crime. Reputable tattoo operators are not a target.

Someone could also be disqualified from providing tattooing services for an “indefinite or specified period” by the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs if they have been a member or close associate of someone in an outlaw gang at any time over the past five years.

Those who continue to operate when disqualified face a maximum penalty of four years imprisonment for an individual, and $250,000 fine for a body corporate.

Parlour operators will be required to provide information to the Commissioner for Consumer Affairs that can be used to determine whether a person is breaking the new laws.

Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Vickie Chapman said she was “surprised” the Government was pressing ahead with the plans, saying it was an arbitrary move to target tattoo parlours.

“Irrespective of what the enterprise is that they (bikies) own, any cash businesses are vulnerable to infiltration to people who shouldn’t be in them,” she said. “It won’t resolve the problem.”

Ms Chapman said the Queensland Government was reviewing its laws, with findings to be made public in coming weeks, and SA should wait to examine the outcome of that before acting.

She also warned such a broad definition of who is a “close associate” of a gang member could capture innocent people with “no direct association except that they share the same grandfather”.