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Ben Geppert: Former bikie used in anti-gang video by cops in court facing multiple charges

An Insta-famous ex-bikie and star of a Queensland Police Service anti-gang campaign has been committed to stand trial on a string of charges including serious assault and extortion.

Gangs Exit program - The Geppert family

An Insta-famous ex-bikie and star of a Queensland Police Service anti-gang campaign has been committed to stand trial on a string of charges including serious assault and extortion.

Former Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle gang member Ben “Notorious” Geppert was arrested at Kingscliff last September after a dramatic police chase months after he’d vowed to get back on the straight and narrow.

He was wanted on charges relating to extortion, robbery and assault occasioning bodily harm at Broadbeach Waters.

Geppert appeared at the hearing via video link from Arthur Gorrie jail, sitting quietly at a table with his many tattoos visible.

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.

Defence lawyer Vered Turner 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.

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

Former bikie Ben Geppert is facing a committal hearing in Southport Magistrates Court on seven charges.
Former bikie Ben Geppert is facing a committal hearing in Southport Magistrates Court on seven charges.

The Courier-Mail 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.

A Ben Geppert Instagram post
A Ben Geppert Instagram post
Geppert says the appeal of money and women was “attractive”. Source: Facebook.
Geppert says the appeal of money and women was “attractive”. Source: Facebook.

“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.

“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.”

Geppert spent lengthy time in prison and, in September 2019, his 17-year-old brother Harry was fatally stabbed in the back during a confrontation at a Gold Coast park.

“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.”

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.

Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/ben-geppert-former-bikie-used-in-antigang-video-by-cops-in-court-facing-multiple-charges/news-story/c74c8f3ee0fe101a77d4d3f559d916bf