Supreme Court Justice David Lovell disqualifies himself from hearing a lawsuit designed to seize Hells Angels Ponde base
One of the state’s most notorious outlaw gangs asked a judge to disqualify himself from deciding the fate of their riverside stronghold – and he has now granted their request.
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A Supreme Court judge has stepped down from the landmark criminal assets battle to determine the fate of the Hell’s Angels’ beloved stronghold at Ponde.
In December, the DPP launched an unprecedented bid to seize Ponde – the gang’s stronghold for more than four decades – as an asset of crime.
The tilt was fuelled by the discovery of a burnt-out car, buried on the property, that was used in the 2007 murder of Mark Boyce.
Because Mr Boyce’s murderer, Joshua Roy Grant, is a director of the company that maintains Ponde, the 15ha property is legally liable for seizure.
Last month – on the same day Grant’s appeal was dismissed – lawyers for the outlaw gang asked Justice David Lovell to disqualify himself from presiding over the seizure case.
Justice Lovell, they argued, should not hear the case because he was also part of the three-person bench that threw out Grant’s bid to clear his name.
On Thursday, Justice Lovell agreed and granted the application.
The case will now be heard by Justice Malcolm Blue in August.
Last week, The Advertiser reported the path had been laid for the landmark criminal assets case that aims to strike at the heart of the Hells Angels after the Supreme Court struck down Grant’s appeal.
Jonathan Wells QC, for Disorganised Developments, had argued an informed observer of the court would think that Justice Lovell was no longer impartial to the case.
“You are directly associated with and committed to a version of the central incident in this case which are settled facts in the criminal appeal but are disputed facts in this case,” Mr Wells said.
“The area of dispute we focus on has been taken to be fact in the appeal.
“Your Honour will have, as a necessity, had to determine Grant’s criminal liability and his future based on these disputed facts.
“This is the embedded view of the incident which a fair-minded, lay observer might conclude your honour would bring to the application.”
The asset seizure case centres on a burnt-out car found buried at Ponde in September 2019. The car was linked to the murder of Mr Boyce and is thought to have been used as a getaway vehicle.
Under criminal assets forfeiture laws, property can be seized if it was used as an instrument of a serious offence.
Mr Wells said there would be legal argument over whether an “instrument” can only be used before a crime, rather than afterwards.
He said that Justice Lovell, by sitting on the Court of Criminal Appeal, would have reached a conclusion as to what type of car was present when the murder occurred.
Ponde has been the South Australian base of operations for the Hells Angels for more than 40 years.
At one point, the sprawling 15ha site, 107km east of Adelaide, was home to an annual festival that drew bikies and music lovers alike from all over the country.
More recently, police have treated the site as a repository for stolen and illegal items.
In September last year, officers searched the site looking for both the getaway car used in the murder of Mr Boyce and a firearm used in the massacre of three Rebels members in Wright St, city, in 1999.
Firearms were found after the search at the site but none was linked to the shooting.