Who needs a clubhouse? Trendiest restaurants are hangouts for well-known former bikies, cops allege
A who’s who of Queensland’s most notorious alleged former bikies have been accused by police of consorting together at some of Brisbane’s hottest restaurants and bars.
Police & Courts
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A who’s who of Queensland’s most notorious alleged former bikies have been accused by police of consorting together at some of Brisbane’s hottest restaurants and bars.
Details of seven occasions where a group of “recognised offenders” were allegedly spotted wining and dining together were revealed in the Supreme Court last month where the manager of a Coffee Club cafe was granted bail on a charge of habitual consorting.
William Adib Samra, from Doolandella, in Brisbane’s western suburbs, is accused of meeting with other “recognised offenders” at bars, restaurants or a hotel seven times between April 8 and June 19 this year including four times at fashionable new hangout Bisou Bisou, a French brasserie inside Brisbane’s newly opened five star Hotel X in Fortitude Valley.
Bisou Bisou sells $130 steaks and charges $220 for 25g of caviar.
The former Clayfield Foodworks supermarket manager is alleged to have met with the former president of the Centro chapter of the Bandidos turned former Comanchero George Bejat, former Bandidos sergeant-at-arms Zivko Stojakovic, former Bandido Grigori Kossian, former Bandidos president Sava Cvetkovic and Mehran Faraji at Bisou Bisou and the rooftop bar Iris on May 22.
Bisou Bisou and Iris are owned by the Ghanem Group, which also owns Blackbird Bar and Restaurant on Eagle St, up-market Donna Chang restaurant and Byblos Bar in Hamilton’s Portside.
The 32-year-old Samra is alleged to have returned to the bar the following Saturday night with Bejat and Stojakovic, and allegedly returned again on June 13 where he socialised with Bejat, a Serbian citizen who has a criminal history for cocaine trafficking, serious assault and tax evasion.
It was police from the Fortitude Valley Criminal Investigation Branch who walked through Bisou Bisou that night, and they detained Bejat, a silent partner in a fish and chip shop on Brisbane’s northside, and issued him with a consorting warning and notice in relation to meeting with Samra, and further issued Bejat with a consorting prevention direction for 12 hours not to return to Bisou Bisou, the police statement of alleged facts in Samra’s case states.
Samra is again alleged to have returned to Bisou Bisou on June 18 in the company of Bejat, Stojakovic, Cvetkovic and Kossian.
Samra is also alleged to have consorted with “recognised offenders” Bejat, Stojakovic, his brother Mario Stojakovic, former Comanchero Wade Robert Hopes and Harley Tane Hohepa on May 16 for lunch at the riverside Belvedere Bar n’ Grill at Hamilton Portside Wharf.
The lunch was to celebrate the christening of the daughter of “recognised offender” Matthew Kevin Mackay, the police statement of alleged facts tendered in court states.
Recognised offender Girgori Kossian was one of the godparents, the police statement says.
Samra is also alleged to have socialised with Bejat, Zivko and Mario Stojakovic and Kossian at the trendy Julius Pizzeria on Grey St, South Brisbane at about 9.30pm on April 9.
Samra was charged with habitual consorting on July 7 – about a year after he was served with a consorting warning notice naming 18 recognised offenders including former Bandidos national sergeant-at-arms Christopher Daniel Barrett and former Bandido and convicted killer Bogdan Cuic – and was refused bail in Richlands Magistrates Court on the same day.
He was granted bail by Supreme Court Justice Glenn Martin on July 12 on strict conditions including a ban from meeting with, speaking to, phoning, sending texts or social media messages, sending written or typed messages or getting in contact with in any way with five “recognised offenders”: Bejat, brothers Zivko and Mario Stojakovic, Cvetkovic and Mackay.
Samra is also banned from bars or pubs in Fortitude Valley or Brisbane City, according to his Supreme Court bail conditions.
He has a night-time curfew from 9pm to 4am, court documents state.
The prosecution did not oppose bail but argued that the crown case appears to be relatively strong because some of the consorting is alleged to have been captured on closed-circuit-television.
Samra’s lawyer Kris Jahnke agreed that the crown case appeared to be strong but argued he would contest the factual basis of the offence.
Mr Jahnke told the court that Samra managed The Coffee Club in Forest Lake, in Brisbane’s western suburbs and also managed a barber shop in the area, performing both jobs along with his father, with whom he shares a home.
The maximum penalty for habitual consorting is three years in prison.
Mr Jahnke submitted that it was unlikely Samra would be jailed if convicted of consorting, as only three people had been sentenced for consorting between 2016 and last year.
One person received six months’ jail, a second person got a $600 fine and a third person got a six-month good behaviour bond.
According to court documents, Samra’s criminal history includes a conviction for affray on December 20 last year and a $250 fine, as well as a conviction for failing to dispose of a needle, for which he was given six months’ probation.
He was convicted of drug possession on December 2 last year and fined $1200 and convicted of drug possession on February 25 last year and fined $600.
He was also fined $350 but not convicted for drug possession in April 2019, court documents reveal.
Bejat has also been charged with consorting with alleged “recognised offenders” Zivko and Mario Stojakovic, William Adib Samra, Sava Cvetokovic, Mehran Faraji, Kevin Matthew Mackay, Harley Tane Hohepa from July last year to June.
Samra is due back in court next month.
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