Mongrel Mob bikie thug Timoti Kapene Te Amo deported to New Zealand
A MONGREL Mob bikie thug — who threatened to cut off a man’s head as he held him next to an electric saw — has been marched in handcuffs to a plane and deported to New Zealand.
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NEW Zealand Mongrel Mob thug Timoti Kapene Te Amo has been deported because he might pose a risk to the safety of Australians.
Australian Border Force officials this week put the notorious street gang member on a flight back to Auckland from Melbourne.
Kapene Te Amo, 47, has convictions for kidnapping, false imprisonment, theft and assault in Australia and for drink driving and drug offences in New Zealand before he moved to Victoria in 2001.
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Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told that Kapene Te Amo was working as a debt collector when he threatened to cut a man’s head off as he held him down next to an electric stone cutting saw while it was running.
Victoria Police detective senior constable Owen Matthews said Kapene Te Amo warned his victim not to call police “or I will come to your house and rape your wife” before demanding to know where the man kept his money “or I’ll cut your head off”.
Kapene Te Amo stole $8000 in cash from the victim then forced him to drive to a bank in the hope of getting more money, but the victim escaped when he was driven back to his Braybrook factory after convincing his captor his credit card was at work.
In jailing Kapene Te Amo for eight months in August last year, County Court Judge Mark Taft said the victim had been deprived of his liberty “in the most frightening of circumstances”.
“You are a very large man and appear to be a physically powerful man … you can only imagine the terror the victim must have felt when confronted with these threats,” Judge Taft told Kapene Te Amo.
A delegate for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton cancelled Kapene Te Amo’s visa on January 23.
The Mongrel Mob heavy then appealed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and on July 9 the AAT affirmed the visa cancelling decision after agreeing with the delegate’s view that Kapene Te Amo’s presence in Australia “is or may pose a risk to the safety of the Australian community”.
“We have introduced laws this week to further strengthen the character test for non-citizens who come to our country and commit offences against Australians,” Mr Dutton told the Herald Sun
“I have cancelled the visas of more criminals, including bikies and sex offenders, than any other Minister since federation and will continue to do whatever I can to make Australia a safer place.”
Although Kapene Te Amo told the AAT he wasn’t a member of the Mongrel Mob he admitted he had the words “Mongrel Mob” tattooed on the front and back of his torso beside a picture of a bulldog and that he often wore a vest with Mongrel Mob patches sown to it.
The AAT also had evidence of Victoria Police telling the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that Kapene Te Amo was a member of the Mongrel Mob and that he was believed to be “heavily involved in criminal activities”.
Kapene Te Amo’s eight month sentence didn’t reach the 12 month sentence trigger under s501 of the Migration Act for mandatory visa cancellation so s116 was used instead.
This section doesn’t rely on the offender being jailed for at least 12 months, with the minister or his delegate being able to cancel the visa if they are satisfied the person is or may be a risk to the health, safety or good order of the Australian community.