Ricky Scott Hayne, 30, given suspended jail sentence for consorting with alleged bikies

The barrister for a “family man” accused of consorting with alleged outlaw motorcycle gang Mongol members in Cairns has had a “bit of a whinge” in court.

Ricky Scott Haynes, 30, pleaded guilty to five charges in Cairns Magistrates Court and was sentenced to 16 months jail, wholly suspended for 16 months.

The barrister for a “family man” accused of consorting with alleged outlaw motorcycle gang Mongol members in Cairns has had a “bit of a whinge” in court, raising concerns about the seizure of mobile phones, police downloading private data “carte blanche”, and the lack of oversight around consorting notices.

Ricky Scott Haynes, 30, pleaded guilty to five charges in Cairns Magistrates Court and was sentenced to 16 months jail, wholly suspended for 16 months, on two counts of contravening an order (to provide a PIN for a mobile phone), two counts of habitually consorting with recognised offenders, and one count of breaching bail between October 2023 and October 2024.

Defence Barrister Martin Longhurst told the court his client was issued with a warrant to search his phone in May 2024 over the consorting allegation, but became concerned police were going to take his phone, which he used for business and which contained private and sentimental family materials.

Ricky Scott Haynes, 30, leaves Cairns Magistrate court with lawyer Scott Osborne; Haynes pleaded guilty to charges of consorting with known offenders and contravening an order between October 2023 and October 2024, and was sentenced to 16 months jail, wholly suspended for 16 month.

“My client had sensitive photos of his wife on his phone and the last video call with his grandmother – they were the last moments of her life – his experience was that if police take the phone, he’s not getting it back … that influenced him at the time and he got his back up,” Mr Longhurst said.

He said Haynes told police he would unlock his phone so they could see he had “nothing to hide”.

“The scope of what police do when they get a phone is so exponentially broad it’s way outside the scope of a warrant,” Mr Longhurst told the could.

“I’ve cross-examined officers from the major drug squad where they say they download the phone, the hard-drive goes in their drawer, and any detective in that unit can look at that for whatever they want – it never gets deleted – for all we know they take it home and do a slide show with all their mates.”

Ricky Scott Haynes, 30, was concerned about sensitive and sentimental material on his phone when he refused a police request for his PIN number, Cairns Magistrates Court was told

Magistrate Mandy Bowen told the court she had also “seen significant inconsistencies in this” but noted contravening a requirement was a serious offence.

“These laws are in place to get the information (police) are looking for under a warrant and if the courts don’t enforce those orders, it becomes a toothless paper tiger,” Ms Bowen said during sentencing.

She sentenced him to 16 months jail, suspended for 16 months, on the contravening requirement charge, nine months on the other mobile phone charge, and one month jail each on the consorting charges, to be served concurrently.

She noted Haynes excellent character references and said he was a “self-employed family man”.

Haynes was arrested as part of Operation Victor Jenga, which police said last year was carried out to “disrupt, gather intelligence and conduct enforcement actions in relation to outlaw motorcycle gang activities and associates”.

Haynes was arrested and charged as part of Operation Victor Jenga, which police said last year was carried out to “disrupt, gather intelligence and conduct enforcement actions in relation to outlaw motorcycle gang activities and associates”, particularly the Mongols.

Mr Longhurst described the operation in court as “a massive investigation – all to show some blokes sitting in a pub together”.

“My client works on worksites with most of these people so the irony is that, from 6am until 5pm, he’s on a worksite discussing whatever he wants directly with these people quite lawfully but through the arcane miracle of this (consorting) notice, once they take a step outside the worksite and they keep speaking to each other, they commit a criminal offence – that’s probably a bit of a whinge,” Mr Longhurst said.

Police prosecutor Luke Parrish said Haynes was 30, had a one-page criminal history, and the offences appeared to be out of character.

“Specific and general deterrence looms large – the enactment of these legislations were to allow police to complete full investigations,” Mr Parrish said.

Originally published as Ricky Scott Hayne, 30, given suspended jail sentence for consorting with alleged bikies