Gold Coast crime: Ex-bikie Ben ‘Notorious’ Geppert committed to stand trial accused of extortion, assault

A notorious former bikie who is accused bashing a man with a baseball bat has been committed to stand trial.

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A NOTORIOUS former bikie who is accused bashing a man with a baseball bat has been committed to stand trial.

Ben Mark Geppert is charged with extortion, assault occasioning bodily harm, making threats and demanding property.

The former Hells Angels bikie is accused of bashing Zaini Sudradjat with a baseball bat at a Broadbeach Waters home in September last year.

He was arrested about a week later at Kingscliff after a dramatic chase over roof tops and through the backyard of homes.

Ex-bikie Ben Geppert at Southport Courthouse. Picture: Tertius Pickard.

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Geppert appeared by videolink in Southport Magistrates Court from Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre.

He was committed for trial in Southport District Court on four of the most serious charges, with the other three adjourned to the magistrates court in July.

Defence lawyer Vered Turner, of Vered Turner Lawyer, said no pleas were being entered at this stage.

Ms Turner said she conceded there was a prima facie case against Geppert and consented to him being committed for trial.

Ben Geppert from his Instagram account iamthenotoriousbg.

Geppert is one of the controversial poster boys for a new QPS documentary aimed at discouraging young men from joining bikie gangs.

News Corp revealed on Tuesday that another star of the campaign, ex-Gold Coast Titans U20s player and former Rebels bikie Dan Kilian, had bashed his pregnant girlfriend after the documentary was filmed but before it was released. Geppert and his mother, Lisa, were interviewed for the QPS Exit Program.

“Gangs back then (when I joined) were like a brotherhood,” he said.

“As a kid I was bullied, never had many friends and I wasn’t getting along with my family … so for me, it was like a family.

“It’s an attractive lifestyle when you’re growing up. They see the money, the gold and the women – but there’s a lot more deep and dark things that underlie that lifestyle.

Former Hells Angels bikie Benjamin Geppert. Source: Facebook.

“I started experimenting with cocaine and that’s when it started to really go downhill for me … I had a bad chip on my shoulder, I thought I was Superman.”

“The reality of gangs and what it’s really like is ugly, it’s not what you see,” Geppert said.

“The real truth about being in a gang, in the club it was hard to sleep at night, I was always looking over my shoulder. It’s a dark lifestyle, it’s unpredictable – I’ve been stabbed, shot at and kidnapped.

“Once I got deep into it, I realised there was no brotherhood, one day your best mate can be your enemy – it could be over a female, or a drug debt, that is just how it is.

“You don’t really have a friendship or a brotherhood in a club, you’re just there to make money for them and if you don’t make money you don’t make sense.”

Ben Geppert. A man wanted on an outstanding warrant by Queensland Police Service will appear in court today after being arrested in NSW.

Outside court, Ms Turner said Geppert had been “very brave” to appear in the police campaign.

She said he still felt the same about his bikie life as he did when he appeared in the video.

“He’s doing whatever he can in custody to better himself,” she said.

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Originally published as Gold Coast crime: Ex-bikie Ben ‘Notorious’ Geppert committed to stand trial accused of extortion, assault