Nomads president Michael Clark allegedly used lawyer Peter Woodhouse in bikie blackmail saga

Police allege prominent legal eagle Peter Woodhouse was used as a pawn by the Nomads national president in the bikie’s plot to reclaim a drug debt from another man.

The national president of the Nomads bikie gang used his own lawyer as a pawn in a $20,000 blackmail racket stemming from a former male prostitute’s drug debt, police allege.

Nomads bikie gang president Michael Wayne Clark is accused of roping his longtime Canberra lawyer, Peter Woodhouse, into the elaborate blackmail saga that began with a car bombing and ended with a woman’s family heirloom jewellery being held as collateral for a drug debt.

Michael Wayne Clark is the ACT and national president of the Nomads outlaw motorcycle gang, police say.

Lawyer Peter Woodhouse leaving the ACT Magistrates Court in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

Mr Woodhouse, who has not been charged with any offence and who is not accused of any wrongdoing, is a partner at Aulich Legal, a high profile Canberra law firm where two other partners are facing unrelated charges stemming from an organised crime sting.

Clark, 35, appeared briefly in the ACT Magistrates Court before Christmas, where he was granted bail and pleaded not guilty to blackmail, weapons and property charges.

The case will likely go to hearing late this year.

In documents tendered in court, partly redacted and released to the Canberra Star on Tuesday, police accuse Clark of blackmailing Natasha Rayner, the former girlfriend of Canberra Nomads sergeant-at-arms Alexander Miller, who is also a former male prostitute.

Alexander Victor Miller, the former sergeant-at-arms of the Canberra chapter of the Nomads bikie gang, and a former male sex worker, has recently quit the gang.

The saga which led up to the alleged blackmail began in December 2019, when Mr Miller was accused of having he and Ms Rayner’s car blown up so he could use the insurance payout to partially repay a drug debt to Clark.

But police seized the money under proceeds of crime laws when they arrested Miller in possession of the cash and suspected it to be drug money.

Later, when Miller and Ms Rayner split, she went to police and dobbed her ex in over the insurance job, claiming the money was the proceeds of crime, albeit not drug money.

Police allege one of Clark’s criminal associates later sent Ms Rayner an encrypted message, saying he was holding onto valuable family jewellery that had previously been stolen from her.

Police raided houses in Canberra and arrested Nomads bikie gang national president Michael Wayne Clark, last year. Picture: NSW Police/AFP

Ms Rayner was told she would only get the jewellery back if she went to Mr Woodhouse’s office and provided him documents that showed the $20,000 in cash seized from Miller was from a legitimate insurance payout.

The prosecution case is that Clark was trying to have police return the money to Ms Rayner, and that he was holding the jewellery as “collateral ” against the drug debt.

Detectives, tapping Clark’s phone, intercepted a text conversation in June in which Clark asked Mr Woodhouse: “Hey pimp, are you in the office tomorrow …? (redacted) gonna bring the paperwork in to drop off”.

In the exchange, Clark calls Mr Woodhouse his “homie”.

Lawyer Peter Woodhouse has represented Michael Clark. Picture: Kym Smith

Alexander Victor Miller, is now working as a tradie in Sydney.

The next day, before attending Mr Woodhouse’s office, Clark was recorded telling a criminal associate Ms Rayner was a “f***ing dog” and he would happily keep the jewellery because it would “eat her for the rest of her life” that he had her family heirlooms.

“She can keep the $20,000, whoop de fucking doo,” Clark is alleged to have said.

It is alleged Ms Rayner met with Mr Woodhouse that day and handed over an ATM receipt and an insurance document from the car fire, and overheard Mr Woodhouse telling Clark that police “could not hold onto the money forever”.

She also overheard Clark saying to Mr Woodhouse “even though Mr Miller had blown up the car or had something to do with the fraud, it wasn’t (Ms Rayner) so she could just say they had a fight and Mr Miller blew her car up”.

Clark met with his lawyer, Peter Woodhouse at his former office in Canberra.

A police raid on Michael Clark’s house allegedly uncovered Nomads paraphernalia, as well as jewellery allegedly used in a blackmail. Picture: Police/AFP

According to the court documents, Mr Woodhouse wrote to police the next day, incorrectly saying he acted on behalf of Ms Rayner, and asking for the $20,000 seized from Mr Miller to be returned to her.

In a statement to police, Ms Rayner said she never asked Mr Woodhouse to write to police on her behalf, and never signed up as a client of his.

When Clark was finally arrested at Canberra Hospital in August last year, a search of his car found a copy of a return letter from the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions to Mr Woodhouse which said Ms Rayner had provided police with a statement accusing Mr Miller of insurance fraud, and declining to return the $20,000.

Police also found Ms Rayner’s jewellery stashed in a wardrobe at Clark’s Kambah home.

Clark returns to court in Canberra in March.

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