Sunshine Coast bikies: Some of region’s notorious club members revealed
The Sunshine Coast has many of the southeast’s most notorious bikies, some of whom have come before court for extortion, drug offences or manslaughter. Now they can be exposed.
Police & Courts
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When you think of bikie gangs, the Gold Coast springs to mind, but the Sunshine Coast has long been host to some of the most notorious clubs and bikies in the country.
The Rebels, Bandidos and Black Uhlans have been established in the region for decades, but many went to ground when the controversial Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) laws were introduced in 2013.
There have been known clubhouses across the region, from the Bandidos clubhouse on Caloundra Road, a Rebels clubhouse in Noosaville and Kunda Park and a Black Uhlans clubhouse in Eumundi.
Here are some of the Sunshine Coast bikies who have made headlines over the years.
Stevan Utah
Bandidos bikie turned police informant Stevan Utah has become known as Australia’s first refugee.
Utah (not his real name) was granted refugee status in Canada in 2018 after more than a decade spent in hiding.
A member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club for 10 years, Utah was recruited by the Australian Crime Commission in 2004 for a national operation against bikie gangs.
He gave authorities information on serious crimes committed by club members and told police about the brutal bashing of a woman near a Sunshine Coast clubhouse.
The woman was left with eight broken bones and needed 184 stitches.
Utah was targeted by fellow gang members when his status as an informant was leaked.
He narrowly escaped a murder attempt in the Sunshine Coast hinterland and was forced to flee the country.
Jason Addison
Former national president of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club Jason Addison now lives in Victoria, but the bikie was once the president of the club’s Sunshine Coast chapter.
Addison was known as one of the club’s longest serving presidents, reported to have held the position for about two decades.
In 2015, Addison faced Maroochydore Magistrates Court, charged with extortion after a former member was forced to sign over his Sunshine Coast marble business, his home and his bike to Addison.
A jury found him not guilty in 2017.
The Herald Sun reported this year that Addison had been replaced as national president, with known Sydney bikie “Big Tony” Vartiainen taking the top job.
It was reported that Addison and his sons have since patched over to the Mongols Motorcycle Club.
Tony Jardine
Tony Jardine was the president of the Sunshine Coast Rebels and a member of the Rebels Motorcycle Club for more than 20 years.
Jardine is known for being one of the most outspoken bikies in the region, and in 2013 he was interviewed by the Daily.
Jardine answered 17 questions about joining the club, how it affected his family and lifestyle and alleged criminal activity by club members.
“Since I have been in the club since 1990, I have had two weapons charges, one for a 3cm butterfly knife in my garage in a box and one for an imitation ball-and-chain, and one charge of obstructing or assaulting police. The fines were in order of $300, $1000 and $600,” he told the Daily.
“Everyone makes mistakes and it doesn’t make us all the bogeyman.
“Before I joined the club, I had one drink charge, one assault charge, and two charges for pot, all between the ages of 18 and 19. I am now 51 and a grandfather.”
Jardine appeared in Maroochydore Magistrates Court in 2013 and pleaded guilty on behalf of the club, which was charged with exposing liquor for sale without a licence following a raid on the Kunda Park clubhouse.
In 2015 Jardine travelled to Canberra where hundreds of bikies descended on the city for a charity event to raise money for Jardine’s son, Luke, who has Down syndrome.
Jardine told the Canberra Times he had planned to sell his Harley Davidson to build a granny flat for his son, but the motorcycle club had other plans and organised the fundraiser.
He said the support had been overwhelming.
Blair Raymond Thomsen
Court documents reveal that Blair Raymond Thomsen was a former president of the Caloundra chapter of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
Thomsen, then 44, pleaded guilty to an extortion offence in the Maroochydore District Court in 2017.
In January 2013 Thomsen had demanded a former member of the club, Stephen John Chambers, give him his motorcycle.
Mr Chambers, who joined the chapter in 2007 but left in 2012 for health reasons, was told to come to the clubhouse for a meeting shortly after his departure.
Thomsen said to Mr Chambers: “Sprogg, we’re taking your f---ing bike.”
According to court documents, Thomsen’s tone was “demanding and not a request, and Mr Chambers knew that when he spoke that way failure to comply or resistance would lead to violence.
One of the other members at the clubhouse, Ricky Wayne McDougall, then drove Mr Chambers to his house, loaded his motorcycle onto a trailer and left.
Thomsen was sentenced to three years and nine months imprisonment with six days of presentence custody declared as time served.
It was ordered that the term be suspended for five years after Thomsen served 16 months.
Thomsen sought leave to appeal his sentence in 2018 but the matter was dismissed.
Ricky Wayne McDougall
Ricky Wayne McDougall was once a known member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club Caloundra chapter.
McDougall was declared to be a serious violent offender and ordered to serve 80 per cent of an eight year prison after he was convicted of manslaughter in 2006.
McDougall pleaded guilty to manslaughter after he was involved in the killing of Dean Tennant in Currimundi in 2004.
McDougall and another man argued with Mr Tennant in a car park, before returning with an iron bar and a torch and smashing his car.
A third man then stabbed Mr Tennant in the heart outside Currimundi Market Place.
The third man was later found not guilty of murder.
McDougall was 23 years old at the time of the offence.
In 2017, McDougall pleaded guilty in Maroochydore District Court to stealing a motorcycle belonging to Stephen John Chambers, a former member of the Caloundra Bandido’s.
The bike’s registration was transferred to the Bandidos’ then-boss Jason Addison.
Aaron Ryan
A bikie with a violent, drug-riddled past was jailed in 2019 after he repeatedly threatened two sisters who identified him as the driver in a police pursuit.
The “1%” tattoo behind Aaron Ryan’s right ear was clear from the Maroochydore District Court dock as he pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice via a string of Facebook messages to one sister, and voicemails to the other.
The “1%” is often associated with outlaw gangs, and Ryan’s Facebook intro states “Saturdrah MC”, an outlaw motorcycle club whose Sydney chapter was shut down in January 2016.
He was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment to be released on parole on May 28.
Michael William Smith and Steven Michael Smith
A father and son duo, who were both linked with Rebels Motorcycle Club, were sentenced in 2016 to different jail terms for their involvement in a drug trafficking operation.
The two Sunshine Coast men were sentenced in Brisbane Supreme Court.
Michael William Smith, then 57, was given an eight year head sentence after pleading guilty to trafficking meth between 2012 and 2013 and other drug and weapons charges.
His son, Steven Michael Smith, then 30, who pleaded guilty to supplying the drug, received immediate parole because he had already spent 80 days in solitary confinement.
The court heard Michael Smith, a former Rebel’s sergeant-at-arms, produced about 1.3kg of meth – 112g which was pure – and sold about $166,000 worth of the drug.
The court heard Michael Smith produced about 1.3kg of meth – 112g which was pure – and sold about $166,000 worth of the drug.
Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco said the trafficking involved a criminal motorcycle gang.
“The fact that he was trafficking (meth) as a member of an outlaw motorcycle gang with members of other outlaw motorcycle gangs … is relevant in so far as it established a distribution network for his business which would have a fair degree of regular custom and a lesser risk of detection,” she said.
Steven Smith was also arrested and charged under the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act for being alleged participants in a bikie club meeting in a group of more than two people at a Yandina pub in 2013.
He became known as one of the infamous ‘Yandina 7’ but he was found not guilty in 2017.
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