Gold Coast crime news: While other kids were shooting hoops, Billy Siemons was jumping cars

A former crim has revealed how losing his best mate sent him on a downward spiral and shares his chilling warning to wannabe teen gangsters.

WHILE other 11-year-olds were shooting hoops with their mates, Billy Siemons was jumping cars and stealing spray paint.

But after close to a decade in and out of juvenile detention and prison, he’s walked away from his life of crime to start afresh on the Gold Coast.

Now 20, he revealed to the Bulletin how losing his best friend sent his life on a downward spiral and shares his chilling warning to wannabe teen gangsters.

Becoming a criminal

Siemons started his life of crime at age 11 after meeting a guy at a program for troubled youth.

It started with graffiti and learning to steal spray paint but when he and a friend “grew balls” the crimes turned to break-ins and stealing cars.

“I started walking to the garage and looking through tool cans to see if there was any paint,” he says.

“I got the need for more. I started looking for unlocked cars with money and then in houses.

“My main forte was break and enters rather than stealing cars. I did sell some drugs but not often.”

Siemons lived much of his teens in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre but said it only made him fall further down the life of crime.

“I did a couple of 12-month stints and some two and three-month stints.

“It’s a kick when you’re doing well and getting what you want when you’re stealing but now it’s worthless. You appreciate it more if you earn something rather than steal it.

“Five minutes to break into a house isn’t worth 12 months behind bars.”

Life behind bars

Siemons says “juvie” became comfortable for him.

“I got used to juvie. If I was scared of it, I wouldn’t have kept going back.

“If you’re scared of a rollercoaster you don’t keep getting on.

“Kids get institutionalised and get used to it. They get used to how nice the security guards are and get used to having a full stomach at night.”

Siemons found jail wasn’t as scary as it was made out by those in youth detention centres.

“There’s a lot more rules and what they call politics in jail that you need to follow but it’s a walk in the park, honestly.”

Billy Siemons says “juvie” became comfortable for him.

Siemons says he was paid $6.40 a week in juvie and given a job cleaning a unit when in jail that paid $24 a week.

The incentives to teach criminals how to save money didn’t have the desired effect: “To be real they pay us to go to juvie and jail. I was transferred from juvie to jail and didn’t spend one cent. I came out with over $400.

“Every time mum came to visit me, I gave her money.

“It’s done to teach how to save but it’s not saving if someone is doing it for you. You’re meant to be getting punished, but you get privileges.”

Part of the gang

Gangs are synonymous with youth crime and Siemons found his way into one, although that wasn’t an early intention.

“On the streets it’s not like you get put in a gang, there’s nothing spoken. It’s just your mates, like everyone has, but at a beefed-up scale.

“The boys will die for each other and go to jail for each other.

“It (gangs) is a front that these kids put on. The gangs like the North and Southside gangs were generated by the media and the kids have run with it.”

Inside the detention centre, Billy Siemons says gang mentality still exists.

Inside the detention centre, Siemons says gang mentality still exists.

“We had boys from all over the place from me in Brisbane to others in Warwick and Rocky.

“We had the Logang and the 608 yard gang stuff happening. We fought for a long time and we got that centre locked down.”

Despite the tough anti-bikie VLAD laws brought in by the Queensland government in 2013, Siemons says bikies are still around, but recruiting in juvies isn’t as widespread as some people might think.

“It happens a lot in the jails compared to juvie. It’s more the young adults that are targeted. If a young adult is known for doing certain types of crimes or links to certain people, they might target him.

“A lot of clubs have different street crews of younger adults, so they might try to recruit them for that.”

The turning point

Siemons lost a close friend during an altercation. He watched him die bedside, went into a downward spiral and eventually jail.

“I lost my best mate last year on Australia Day. He paid the ultimate consequence for all our boys’ actions.

“I went to jail and it forced me off the drugs, which showed to me how bad I was mentally.

“I was traumatised from it with PTSD, anxiety and depression. It plays a toll on your body.

“I’ve seen people who have witnessed stabbing and deaths and they think they’re sweet in the mind but the trauma causes them to throw up and play with them physically.

Billy Siemons, 20, at Fight 4 Youth in Currumbin. Picture: Supplied

“A lot of people live under the front that you have to keep a code and in their eyes I broke that code. In my mind, I did what’s good for my boy (friend).

“There’s more to life than that hood stuff.”

On release, Siemons moved to the Gold Coast and became a part of youth worker Leisa J Logan’s Fight 4 Youth program in Currumbin, doing boxing to keep himself occupied.

He’s looking for work and is ready to start a new life away from crime.

“People ask me if I’ll be a part of their jail gang when I go back in and I say I’m not going back.

“I’m going through tough times but everything is easier now.

“Things work out when you’re patient.”

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Originally published as Gold Coast crime news: While other kids were shooting hoops, Billy Siemons was jumping cars