Ex-bikie flees country after murder attempt on Coast

AN EX-BIKIE who spent more than a decade in hiding after fellow gang members tried to kill him on the Sunshine Coast has been granted refugee status in Canada.

Australian man Stevan Utah has reportedly been granted refugee status in Canada amid fears for his life after he infiltrated the Bandidos bikie gang.

AN EX-BIKIE who spent more than a decade in hiding after fellow gang members tried to kill him on the Sunshine Coast has been granted refugee status in Canada.

In fear for his life, former Bandidos bikie gang member Stevan Utah fled Australia in 2006 after narrowly escaping a murder attempt by gang members near Delaney Creek.

A country road near Delaney's Creek, north of Brisbane, where Mr Utah said he narrowly escaped a murder attempt by Bandidos bikies. Picture: ABC News

Months earlier it was revealed Mr Utah had infiltrated the gang and acted as a police informant; giving authorities information into serious crimes the Bandidos had committed, including murder.

One of the cases Mr Utah said he led police to involved a man who was forced to hang himself and another who was tortured to death with a hammer.

Mr Utah said he also informed police of the brutal beating of a woman at the Bandidos' clubhouse on the Coast.

He was a member of the Bandidos for a decade before being recruited by the Australian Crime Commission (ACC) for a national operation against bikie gangs in 2004.

Australian man Stevan Utah has reportedly been granted refugee status in Canada amid fears for his life after he infiltrated the Bandidos bikie gang.

But Mr Utah has been living in exile after he claims Australian authorities blew his cover, putting a target on his head.

The board found ACC "outed the claimant as an informant" with a 2006 media release "divulging that they had a source" in the Bandidos, ABC reported.

It ruled that Mr Utah had presented "clear and convincing evidence" of the failure by Australian authorities to provide him with adequate protection from the Bandidos.

The Bandidos Motorcycle Gang arrive at Caloundra and are welcomed by a strong show of Police. Photo: Cade Mooney / Sunshine Coast Daily. Picture: Cade Mooney

"I do find that the claimant would more likely than not face a serious risk to his life, almost immediately on his return to Australia," IRB member Jodie Schmalzbauer wrote in a judgment obtained by the ABC.

He has since become the first known refugee from Australia.

Mr Utah said he was no longer an Australian.

"What was done to me years ago is not the cause of current serving members of policing agencies ... nor did the sitting (federal) government do this to me," he told the ABC.

"But the institutions they currently serve most certainly did."

Mr Utah told the ABC in a statement he was "pleased for Australia" that new anti-gang and corruption entities had formed since he fled.

EX-BIKE LEADS COPS TO GANG CRIMES

DURING his time as an undercover police informant, ex-bikie Stevan Utah said he fed police information about several crimes committed by the Bandidos.

He was a member of the Bandidos bikie gang for a decade before turning to the Australian Crime Commission as an informer mid 2004.

Mr Utah claims he fled Australia in 2006 after his cover was blown and Bandidos members tried to kill him on the Sunshine Coast.

A year later he told news companies the Bandios were responsible for several high-level offences including the severe beating of a woman at a Bandidos clubhouse on the Sunshine Coast.

Mr Utah said the woman was dragged by her hair and kicked, leaving her with eight broken bones and 184 stitches.

He said he also led the ACC to the body of 54-year-old Geelong security guard Earl Neil Mooring; which has been described one of Victoria's most brutal murders.

Mr Utah said Mr Mooring was tortured to death with a hammer in October, 2000.

The former bikie said he helped dump Mr Mooring's body at Goulburn, south of Sydney

According to Mr Utah, members of the Bandidos were also responsible for the murder of a former gang member in 2003.

Mr Utah said the man was forced to hang himself rather than be beaten to death after a corrupt police informant told gang members the Bandido was helping them.

In 2013 Mr Utah told News Limited as a "prospect" of an outlaw motorcycle club one is "required to do anything asked of a patched member".

"It is a lot more than cooking a barbecue, cleaning the floors and washing bikes," he said.

"You may be asked to assist in recovering a drug debt, delivering drugs or simply beat on someone that has done something to the club.

"You are groomed into being a criminal."