SA court told Hells Angels bikies will ‘enforce’ their legal rights in battle to keep infamous stronghold at Ponde
It’s been their home away from home for 40 years, and the notorious Hells Angels bikie gang won’t give up Ponde without a fight – telling a court they’ll “enforce” their legal rights.
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The state’s most notorious outlaw bikie gang says it will “enforce its rights” to fight off an audacious legal bid to seize its prized, million-dollar riverside stronghold.
Disorganized Developments – which manages the Hells Angels’ 15ha property at Ponde – has also flagged a bid to have a Supreme Court judge disqualified from deciding the case.
On Monday, Jonathan Wells QC, for the company, said the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions had been slow to hand over documents key to its seizure bid.
“It appears to us it would be more effective if we were to seek, from Your Honour, orders for disclosure … this is a civil proceeding, we are entitled (to do so),” he told Justice Sam Doyle.
“More particularly, it seems to us we must seek to enforce our procedural rights.”
In December last year, the ODPP filed a forfeiture injunction against the Ponde property, 107km east of Adelaide.
The fortified compound has served as the gang’s “home away from home” for more than 40 years.
The landmark court action was made possible, the ODPP asserted, by the discovery of a burnt-out and dismantled car buried 4m beneath the riverbank soil.
That vehicle, they allege, is the getaway car used in the 2017 murder of Mark Boyce – legally rendering the entire million-dollar property an instrument of crime.
Outlaw gang member Joshua Roy Grant, who is serving a life sentence over Mr Boyce’s murder, is a director of Disorganised Developments.
Gang members are currently banned from attending Ponde, or doing anything to dispose of it or affect its value, pending the court’s final decision.
On Monday, Mr Wells asked Justice Doyle to order the ODPP to hand over “all documentation and materials containing information relevant” to the case.
He suggested Justice Doyle may not be able to continue hearing the case afterwards.
“SA Police have made a number of applications for warrants under the Listening and Surveillance Devices Act … two were granted by Your Honour,” he said.
“There may well have been information (gathered by those warrants) relevant to this matter.
“We have to make a decision and provide advice to our client about Your Honour.”
Lisa Dunlop, for the ODPP, asked for time to consider the scope of Mr Wells’ request for disclosure before any orders were made.
Justice Doyle conceded Mr Wells had “triggered a memory” about the wire taps, but agreed with Ms Dunlop that further time may resolve the documentation issue.
He adjourned the case until April to allow the parties to negotiate.