Alleged Mongols member Harley Barbaro denied bail after being accused of consorting

Accused Mongols bikie Harley Barbaro will remain in custody until next month after going to social functions and having drinks with an alleged bikie boss.

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ACCUSED Mongols bikie Harley Barbaro will remain in custody until next month after going to social functions and having drinks with an alleged bikie boss.

Barbaro, 28, pleaded guilty in the Southport Magistrates Court on Thursday to one count of habitually consorting between March 6 last year and June 6 this year.

He was convicted and placed on a suspended prison term for the same type of offence in April this year.

Barbaro met people he was prohibited from contacting, including alleged Mongols national office holder Tyrone Poole, five times between March last year and this month.

One of those occasions included going to the pub and having dinner with them.

Others were organised social functions such as birthday parties.

Barbaro has been prohibited from consorting with a named list of convicted criminals after being served a notice a number of years ago.

It means he cannot have contact with those people.

FORMER ESCORT THREATENED EX LOVER FOR ENDING AFFAIR

Harley Barbaro in November last year. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

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Police prosecutor Senior Sergeant Sean Franklin said: “The object is to obstruct and prevent criminal activity and the expanding of a criminal network.”

Defence barrister Marty Longhurst, instructed by Phillips Lawyers, said a majority of the people on the list were childhood friends of Barbaro.

“He is going to these events and when the other people are there is not removing himself,” he said.

Barbaro has been in custody since he was denied bail on Wednesday last week.

“If he is in the community he has conditions he cannot see these people,” Mr Longhurst said.

“If he is in custody there are four or five other people on the notices that he is free to interact with.”

Magistrate Kerry Magee activated Barbaro’s suspended sentence and sentenced him to a further three months in prison.

That sentence will run concurrently with his term and he will be released on parole on July 8.

JUNE 12: BARBARO DENIED BAIL

ALLEGED Mongols bikie gang member Harley Barbaro will spend the weekend in custody after being denied bail accused of habitually consorting with criminals.

The 28-year-old was arrested on Wednesday afternoon and charged with habitual consorting.

Barbaro applied for bail in the Southport Magistrate Court on Friday.

He was supported by his fiance and their three-month-old child.

It is alleged he associated with named people he was prohibited to on numerous occasions between January 12 last year and June 6 this year.

Barbaro has previously been issued a consorting notice which bans him from associating in any way with people named on the list. Police can only name people who have been convicted of a crime.

Barbaro is the brother of underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro, who was shot execution-style in Sydney in 2016.

Barbaro’s lawyer Nick Crawford, of Phillips Lawyers, said: “None of the allegations involve any linkage to criminal activities and all involve social events such as attending parties.”

Mr Crawford told the court that in April this year police had dropped accusations Barbaro had consorted with named people between January and April 2020.

He said some of the allegations in the new charge related to those incidents and therefore should not have been included.

Mr Crawford said, if convicted, Barbaro also ran the risk of spending too much time in custody if he was not granted bail.

Magistrate John Costanzo noted much of the alleged offending was while Barbaro was subject to a suspended sentence.

He said Barbaro was placed on a three-month suspended sentence in April for breaching bail and possessing drugs.

Magistrate Costanzo said Barbaro was also on bail for a perjury charge for matters before the Crime and Corruption Commission.

“The evidence (in relation to the consorting charge) appears to be quite strong including some captured on CCTV, together with evidence from a mobile phone,” he said.

Magistrate Costanzo noted Barbaro had been sentenced in Queensland courts “on about 20 occasions” since 2010.

“He is expected to be more familiar with the bail system than most citizens, yet his history contains many offences of breaching bail,” he said.

Magistrate Costanzo denied bail and adjourned the matter to June 17.

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