Fists, bullets, bar stools: Brutal attacks of Qld bikies
From shopping centre shootouts, to flying chairs at smoothie bars, strip club melees and jail stoushes, we take a look at some of our most notorious bikie brawls.
Police & Courts
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Not even innocent members of the public have been safe from bikie brawls in recent years, with bullets, fists and furniture flying.
The venues have been shopping centres from Logan to the Gold Coast, a strip club and even a smoothie bar.
And since the former Newman Government shipped off bikies to Woodford prison, it has become such a hotbed for gang fights that guards walked off in protest earlier this month.
We take a look at some of the most notorious clashes, who was involved and what sparked them.
LOGAN HYPERDOME SHOOTING
Last month Rebels Logan chapter sergeant-at-arms Lucas James Pain was sentenced to 13 years’ prison for a brazen attack on Bandidos member Harley Cranston in broad daylight at the busy shopping centre.
He opened fire in a terrifying incident in February, 2019 after planning to ambush Cranston during a meeting at a restaurant.
Pain was sentenced to six years’ jail for the attack. He also became the first person in Queensland to be slapped with a mandatory cumulative seven-year jail term for the serious organised crime circumstance of aggravation, due to his outlaw-motorcycle-gang links.
It means Pain will be forced to serve a minimum of 11 years of the 13-year sentence behind bars.
Prosecutors had alleged that the then-president of the Logan chapter of the Rebels OMCG Joshua John Lucey had hatched a plan to “ambush” Cranston during a meeting at a restaurant inside the centre.
Lucey, who along with Pain was charged with one count of malicious striking with intent to disable, was found not guilty of any wrongdoing. He was never accused of firing the weapon.
CCTV vision showed Cranston running to his car, where he pulled out a machete before jumping out of the way of a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road outside the shopping centre.
He was then shot in the leg and ran back through the centre brandishing the machete, his leg streaming with blood, fleeing the wrong way up escalators and past shocked families with children.
TONY’S STRIP CLUB MELTDOWN
Brisbane District Court heard Christopher Barrett had been asked to leave Fortitude Valley club Tony’s in August, 2015 when he ripped off his shirt to reveal a tattoo of the Bandidos insignia and screamed “You don’t know who I am? I can have 50 guys down here before you know it”.
A 2017 trial heard the former Bandidos national sergeant at arms then tried to choke the club manager.
After warning terrified staff “I’ll come back with my boys and f*ck you up” if they called police, a dancer pounced on Barrett’s back.
However, Barrett’s barrister said his client was a changed man who had cut ties with the Bandidos after the notorious 2006 “Ballroom Blitz’’.
He said Barrett and an associate had gone to dinner on the Gold Coast with their wives before the attack and blamed his client’s “over-reaction” on too much tequila.
Barrett was sentenced to 12 months in jail, suspended immediately.
AURA RESTAURANT RIOT
The September 27, 2013 clash sparked an unprecedented crackdown by the then Newman Government and formulation of controversial VLAD laws.
Eighteen bikies pleaded guilty in August, 2015 to charges including riot, affray, public nuisance and assault and obstruct police.
But despite a court hearing that they king-hit police, threatened to slit an onlooker’s throat and caused “fear and distress” to innocent women and children, the bikies walked free — smiling and laughing — with fully suspended jail sentences, fines and in one case a good behaviour bond.
Riot ringleader Jacques Teamo slammed the prosecution as “a complete waste of time and taxpayers’ money.”
The biffo at the Gold Coast’s Aura Tapas and Lounge Bar, where a waitress grabbed cutlery and crockery to stop them being used as weapons, was sparked by a love triangle involving Teamo.
Bandidos members later held siege to the Southport police station, demanding the release of their associates who had been arrested during the restaurant fight.
Police charged 27 Bandidos and two Finks.
The genesis of the trouble began when Bandido member Teamo dated the ex-girlfriend of Jason Trouchet, a long-time friend of Finks terror team member Nick “The Knife” Forbes.
Teamo made a heated phone call to Trouchet about the woman and Trouchet attacked him in return.
Trouchet and Teamo both pleaded guilty to affray.
Bikies say Teamo was twice bashed before gathering together dozens of Bandido associates to have his revenge on Trouchet at the restaurant.
BALLROOM BLITZ
Two members of the Finks Outlaw Motorcycle Club were jailed for their part in the violent Gold Coast “ballroom blitz” bikie brawl in March, 2006.
Three men were shot and three stabbed when members of the Finks attacked rival Hells Angels bikies in a packed Royal Pines Resort ballroom.
Members and associates of the Hells Angels were sitting ringside at a kickboxing tournament when the large group of rival Finks, including Shane Bowden and Nicholas “The Knife” Forbes arrived. Bowden was later assassinated.
The fight started when Forbes threw a punch at Finks member Christopher Hudson.
A Brisbane District Court was shown dramatic footage of the now-infamous incident; with the tournament descending into chaos as warring bikies throw punches, chairs and glasses.
The footage clearly shows Forbes and Hudson coming to blows, before Bowden pulls a handgun and shoots Hudson twice in the face and back.
Forbes then holds Hudson against the ring while Bowden and another man rain more blows on him.
It is believed the shooting was retribution for Hudson, a former Finks member, deciding to defect to the Hells Angels.
However, the court heard Forbes was furious with Hudson because he had stolen a sapphire from his parents, which he intended to pawn to fuel his drug addiction.
Bowden and Forbes were sentenced to six and a half years’ and 18 months’ prison respectively for their roles in the melee, which took place in front of 1800 shocked spectators and caused $10,000 worth of damage.
KFC CARPARK PUNCH-UP
Ben “Notorious’’ Geppert, a former Hells Angels member, was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for three years, in March 2019 after a Gold Coast KFC carpark punch-up.
Video of the incident was widely circulated on social media.
The heavily tattooed bikie pleaded guilty to a charge of public nuisance, obstructing police, three counts of possessing dangerous drugs, possessing drug utensils and one Commonwealth offence of using a carriage service to harass.
Footage was captured by Geppert’s girlfriend Allaina Vader, who can be heard encouraging him with calls of “you go Ben”.
The fight came after weeks of tension with a rival Mongols president “calling him out” on social media.
WOODFORD JAIL BIFFO
After former Premier Campbell Newman said in 2013 that outlaw gang members would be sent to a “bikies only’’ Woodford prison, life got increasingly tough for guards and other inmates as rival gangs battled it out on the inside.
By 2016 more than 100 bikies were in state prisons.
In one incident, a court heard former Bandido bikie Lionel Patea poured hot water on another inmate.
Patea had spent seven months locked in solitary confinement after a series of run-ins with guards before throwing water at the prisoner, who called Patea a “maggot” and challenged him to a fight.
Earlier this month, Woodford prison officers walked off the job after repeated assaults and concerns over Comanchero bikie gang members dominating a unit at the jail.
Officers concerned about the bikies in jail units were calling them “clubhouses”, with more than 15 Comanchero gang members in just one unit.
One of the units dominated with Comanchero bikies – N12 – has housed Patea’s brother Nelson, who was convicted of the manslaughter of Gold Coast man Greg Dufty.
The jail also has Bandidos, Mongols, Rebels and Finks members.
COOLY ROCKS ON FESTIVAL
In June, 2013 ex-NRL player turned Finks bikie Anthony Watts and others were arrested over a brawl at the Cooly Rocks On festival on the Gold Coast.
The wild weekend street brawl occurred between Finks and Nomads bikies at Coolangatta.
Shocked festivalgoers, including women with prams and children, were forced to take cover as the brawling bikies wrestled over the top of classic cars and bashed each other with cafe furniture.
Watts, who was charged with affray, was later sentenced to community service.
Finks members Clint Harris, Leslie Andrew Markham, Billy Raymond Thomas, Grant Gavin, Clarence Joseph Kercher and Martin Hannken pleaded guilty in Southport Magistrates Court to affray and were fined or given community service.
GOLD COAST SMOOTHIE BAR BRAWL
Diners at the Smoothie Shack, including children, ducked for cover as bikies hurled tables and chairs during five minutes of mayhem at the Gold Coast bar in 2013.
The brawl was believed to have been a showdown between rival Hells Angels and Finks bikies.
ROBINA TOWN CENTRE SHOOTING
In April, 2012 Jacques Teamo was again in the news, this time after being shot at a crowded Robina Town Centre by Mongols rival Mark Graham, a Finks member who patched over to the Mongols.
An innocent bystander, Kathy Devitt, suffered a bullet wound to the leg after bending down to pick up a $10 note that had fallen out of Graham’s bumbag when he went to draw his gun.
Graham was jailed in 2014 for 12 years for attempted murder.
Teamo and the bystander both recovered from their injuries.
Justice Alan Wilson said it remained a mystery why Teamo armed himself with a knife and Graham with a handgun to go shopping with their respective families.
“When you saw each other, neither the presence of family nor of large numbers of innocent bystanders, discouraged you from a confrontation which resulted in Teamo and Ms Kathy Devitt, a person unknown to you, being shot,” he said.
VARSITY LAKES BASEBALL BAT BASHING
Late in 2015 two Finks gang members faced court, charged over the alleged baseball bat bashing of a Hells Angels rival in front of shocked cafe diners at Varsity Lakes.
The alleged victim was allegedly forced to jump into a lake and swim to escape after being chased by the Finks.
Senior police said trouble between the gangs went back to at least 2006 when former Fink Christopher Wayne Hudson “patched over” to the Hells Angels.
The defection was blamed for sparking the infamous “Ballroom Blitz”.
Hudson is serving a life sentence for a triple shooting in Melbourne’s CBD which left one person dead and two seriously injured.
Man arrested over alleged Tallebudgera Valley shooting
Police have arrested a man over an incident in a remote Gold Coast hinterland location last week which saw another man allegedly shot in the head and shoulder with a homemade pipe gun.
Cops busy with hit-and-run, house fire
Investigations are underway into a car and house fire, a hit-and-run involving a possible stolen black Dodge Ram and a dumped Toyota HiLux in which two people have been arrested following a police foot chase this morning.