Gold Coast bikies: City’s most feared and notorious members
The Gold Coast has had a long history with bikies, dating back decades. These are some of the men behind the most infamous gangs and incidents the city has seen. SEE THE LIST
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The Gold Coast has had a long history with bikies, dating back decades. These are some of the men behind the most infamous gangs and incidents the city has seen. Being jailed for shootings, drug trafficking and bashings, they have brought crime to the city and some have even been killed.
Sean Jones
Jones’ involvement in a shooting was the start of decades of bikie incidents on the Gold Coast that eventually led to the Newman Government introducing its controversial VLAD laws in 2013.
In November 1996 a motorcycle exhibition at the Tugun Seahawks Rugby League Club became the scene of a shooting after Black Uhlans associate Sean Jones shot fellow club members Richard McKenna and Steve ‘Bam Bam’ Zaicov McKenna.
Fleeing from the scene, Jones handed himself into police two days after the shooting and was charged with two counts of attempted murder and possession of a concealable weapon.
A year later his attempted murder charges were dropped and he was found guilty of grievous bodily harm and was sentenced to five years’ jail.
GREG ‘25’ KEATING
Keating was involved in bikie gangs, most notably the Finks, until many members of the club patched over to the Mongols in late 2013 following a crackdown from police.
He was alleged to be a part of the Finks ‘Terror Team’ in documents filed in the Supreme Court in Queensland by police, which detailed the Terror Team controlled Orchid Ave nightclubs and other small businesses.
Keating pleaded guilty to supplying a prohibited drug in 2009 and was placed on an 18-month good behaviour bond.
In the same year he was jailed for refusing to testify at a secret Australian Crime Commission hearing. He was sentenced to jail for a year, reduced to a release on a $3000 good behaviour bond after serving four months.
Keating and friend Shane Bowden moved to Victoria after the introduction of the Newman Government bikie laws in 2013.
In 2015 police allege Keating was contacting senior members of the club’s Gold Coast hierarchy, advising them on how to run their alleged drug empire, but he was not charged.
SHANE BOWDEN
With a handful of offences under his belt, Bowden’s life of crime went to another level when he moved to the Gold Coast from Adelaide in 1996.
By 1998 he was climbing the ranks in the Finks, and a then 25-year-old Bowden was convicted of trafficking 23.4g of cocaine in September and sentenced to a maximum of six years’ jail.
An incident in 2005 when working as a bouncer on the Gold Coast saw Bowden receive a nine-month suspended jail sentence for bashing a man and he was ordered to pay $12,500 to the victim.
The following year Bowden was involved in his most infamous crime when he shot Hells Angel member Christopher Hudson during the Ballroom Blitz – considered one of Australia’s worst bikie brawls.
Hudson was shot twice by Bowden, believed by police to be an attempt on the life of the former Fink who had “patched over” to the Hells Angels and was trying to recruit other Finks members to join him.
Bowden was sentenced to six and a half years jail and on release “patched over” to the Mongols.
On October 12, 2020 Bowden was shot dead by a hooded gunman in the driveway of his Pimpama home.
Ten people have since been charged with murder over Bowden's death.
Christopher Hudson
Known as the man shot in the Ballroom Blitz, Hudson’s actions leading up to the event have a lot to do with why the Finks and the Hells Angels met that night in 2006.
Looking to gain ground on the Gold Coast, the Hells Angels found an ally and a way “in” when Hudson patched over from the Finks in late 2004.
A year later in 2007 Hudson was on the run from police after a drug-fuelled rampage when he killed lawyer Brendan Keilar and shot Dutch backpacker Paul de Waard.
He handed himself into police after two days on the run with his arm heavily bandaged due to blowtorch burns he endured during punishment from the Hells Angels for his actions.
Hudson is currently serving a 35-year sentence for murder.
Nick ‘the knife’ Forbes
The man who started the Ballroom Blitz melee, Forbes is another member of the Finks “Terror Team”, and he has spent plenty of time behind bars.
During a kickboxing tournament at the Royal Pines Resort in March 2006, Forbes threw a punch at Christopher Hudson, starting a violent brawl. He was sentenced to 27 months in jail for grievous bodily harm related to his role in the melee, but was released on a suspended sentence after serving 18 months for the incident.
Forbes was soon back behind bars after his part in an incident in January 2009. A violent rampage through Broadbeach Mall led to him being sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for grievous bodily harm and assault over the random attacks on up to six innocent young men.
Again a brawl with the Hells Angels put Forbes in prison in 2011 when he was extradited to South Australia for the incident in May 2011, where security footage captured him swinging punches at Hells Angels members in Hindley Street club the City Nightclub.
Initially acquitted over the charges, Forbes was sentenced to two and a half years prison in a retrial in 2016 after being found guilty of affray.
In May 2019, days after he was released from a South Australian jail, Forbes was extradited back to Queensland to face charges over a money laundering scam and in September the same year he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in jail, with immediate release.
Adam White
The president of the Bandidos during the Broadbeach brawl, White was one of 18 involved who pleaded guilty in August 2015 to charges including riot, affray, public nuisance and assault and obstruct police.
Initially sentenced to four months imprisonment, wholly suspended, White had his sentence increased to 12 months wholly suspended when police appealed in 2016.
The brawl sparked a crackdown on the Gold Coast on bikie gangs and in the following year police made 3206 arrests and laid 5000 charges.
The LNP Government launched its VLAD laws and twin task forces, Maxima and Takeback, were formed to fight the war on bikies.
Jacques Teamo
Possibly the most infamous member of the Gold Coast Bandidos, Teamo was alleged to be the ringleader behind the 2013 Broadbeach bikie brawl.
Teamo is accused of leading a group of around 60 Bandidos to Broadbeach and threatening two Finks associates in the Aura Tapas and Loungebar.
Teamo’s sentence of four months imprisonment, wholly suspended, for rioting was lifted in the 2016 appeal to 13 months wholly suspended.
A year early Teamo was shot by Mongols bikie Mark Graham in what would be known as the Robina Town Centre shooting.
In recent times Teamo was sentenced to three months prison after allegedly punching a 29-year-old man in the face and threatening to stab him at the Pacific Fair shopping centre on May 4 2018.
Nine days later his house was searched and police found a water pipe.
When he was taken to the watchhouse, Teamo was asked to remove his underwear and a clip seal bag containing 0.296g of the drug ice fell to the ground.
He pleaded guilty to common assault, wilful damage, possessing dangerous drugs and possessing a water pipe used in relation to drugs on November 30, 2018.
Mark Graham
Graham was the man who fired shots at rival bikie Jacques Teamo in 2012.
Not only did Graham’s shot at the Robina Town Centre hit Teamo but two bullets also hit an innocent bystander.
Graham was found guilty of opening fire in late September 2014 and was convicted of attempted murder and unlawful wounding, earning him 12 years and three months jail in November the same year.
BRETT ‘KAOS’ PECHEY
Pechey is known for his face tattoos and notorious behaviour, which landed him in hot water not only on the Gold Coast but also in Western Australia.
The heavily tattooed face of the former president of the West End chapter of the Bandidos made him recognisable in the infamous 2013 Broadbeach bikie brawl.
Wanted on extortion and riot charges, he fled to Thailand after the event, but returned to the Coast in 2015 when he ran out of money . He was ordered to serve nine-and-a-half months behind bars in a hearing in January 2016, which he had already served since returning from Thailand.
Pechey returned to the public eye early 2018 when he started a feud with former Hells Angels and Finks member Ben “Notorious” Geppert, who accused Pechey of being a “dog”, or police informant.
The feud caused a rift between the men’s partners, Instagram star sisters Allaina and Rikki Louise, but later that year Pechey and Rikki split.
In March 2018 Pechey was involved in a dramatic standoff with police on the Gold Coast and has been on the run from the Queensland Police Service since December 2018.
The police warrant was handed out after Pechey failed to attend Southport Magistrates Court, where he still faces a number of charges including serious assault of a police officer and commit public nuisance.
Laying low in Western Australia, a “bizarre” and “menacing” meth-fuelled rant early this year landed him in jail.
Pechey pleaded guilty in Perth Magistrates Court to threatening to kill, possessing a firearm in circumstances of aggravation, possessing unlawfully obtained property and multiple police order breaches relating to domestic violence offences and was sentenced to a year behind bars in September this year.
Originally published as Gold Coast bikies: City’s most feared and notorious members
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