High Court unanimously overturns government declaration of Hells Angels’ base at Ponde as off-limits to bikies
The High Court has ruled the state government must return the Hells Angels’ Ponde compound to the bikie gang – and taxpayers will be slugged with the huge legal bill.
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For the second time the Hells Angels have beaten attempts by the state to take their long-time South Australian base of operations from them and have been awarded legal costs running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
On Wednesday morning the High Court unanimously allowed an appeal by the directors of Disorganized Developments – a company that holds the lease over a large property at Ponde, 100km east of Adelaide.
The court ruled a state government declaration the Ponde site was a “prescribed place” and off limits for all criminal organisation members, including the Hells Angels, was invalid.
The ruling means that for the first time in several years members of the gang, including Peter Stacey and Stephen Taylor, the directors of Disorganized Developments who occasionally live at the property, can return home.
Ponde has been a rural fortress for the Hells Angels for decades and has hosted music festivals and motorcycle races on a custom built track.
In 2019 police scoured the property looking for evidence from two suspected murders. They uncovered the burnt-out remains of a car believed to have been used in the 2017 murder of Mark Boyce.
Following the discovery the Director of Public Prosecutions launched an audacious bid to have Ponde surrendered to the Crown as an instrument of crime.
However, after months of legal wrangling the application was withdrawn and the state committed to paying the legal costs of the Hells Angels, which included the work of top civil barrister Jonathon Wells KC.
Not satisfied with the loss, the government made a declaration that Ponde was a “prescribed place” in February 2022.
Mr Stacey and Mr Taylor launched an appeal against the declaration, which was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
The High Court, including Chief Justice Susan Kiefel and Justices Stephen Gageler, Simon Steward, Jacqueline Gleeson and Jayne Jagot, unanimously upheld two grounds of appeal.
They ruled the declaration itself was so vague as to be ineffective, reinforcing that it is not the court’s place to remedy “deficient” government orders.
The court also held Mr Stacey and Mr Taylor were denied “procedural fairness” when the decision was made to make their entry on the land illegal.
In their written judgment, the justices said the government had made its intentions clear to make the declaration a second time, but reinforced that when an order impinged on the rights of land owners, they had to be given a voice in the decision.
The court ordered the government once again pay Disorganized Developments costs, which not only included the work of Mr Wells but noted appeals barrister Chad Jacobi KC and veteran Adelaide solicitor Jon Lister.
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Originally published as High Court unanimously overturns government declaration of Hells Angels’ base at Ponde as off-limits to bikies
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