Alleged Mongols bikie Tyrone Poole fighting shopping centre ban

An alleged Mongols bikie busted buying flowers and eating and drinking at a popular Gold Coast shopping hub is fighting a conviction for going to the retail complex by using this argument.

An alleged Mongols bikie who was banned from Gold Coast shopping centres after a wild brawl is fighting a conviction for going to a retail complex he argued was a market.

Tyrone Poole was convicted last month of breaching bail orders not to go near shopping centres between Loganholme and Coolangatta.

The condition was slapped on him after he was charged with affray over a brawl between Mongols and Finks bikies at Southport’s Australia Fair shopping centre last June.

Poole, 31, was later charged with breaching bail after being busted buying flowers, eating and drinking at the Brickworks centre at Southport in September.

Tyrone Poole is fighting charges he went to a shopping centre despite a ban.

He pleaded not guilty at a hearing last month, telling Southport Magistrates Court he thought the Brickworks was a market because it didn’t have a Coles or Woolworths.

The centre does have stores including Freedom Furniture, Chemist Warehouse and TK Maxx.

“There was a big sign saying marketplace,” Poole told the court, adding he would not have gone there if he thought it was a shopping centre.

The police prosecutor told the court that the Brickworks was “a series of shops all in one place” with large retail stores and eateries.

Magistrate Dzenita Balic said CCTV footage showed The Brickworks was “a clear conglomeration of shops” and Poole would have seen that on the path he took to the centre.

She found Poole guilty, convicting him because of his lengthy criminal history but not further punishing him.

His lawyer, Michael Gatenby, told the court the prosecution was “absurd in the extreme” and could have been avoided with “prosecutorial discretion”.

Poole has now lodged an appeal against the conviction in the District Court.

The grounds for the appeal have not yet been outlined.

Poole was found guilty of the Australia Fair affray charge, along with two counts of possessing steroids and testosterone, last November and was fined $1500.

A conviction was also recorded.