Deadline: Bikies rough justice, Toby Mitchell the TV critic and Rocco’s last laugh

Bikies like to deal with matters in-house, meting out justice ranging from a thief’s 7500km road trip, a bleeding body on the nature strip and an execution.

Deadline: Andrew Rule

It’s highly unlikely that criminals will ever completely self-regulate.
But the occasional story turns up that shows how outlaws dispense justice inside their ranks.

A while back, a young bikie prospect on a run in country Victoria stole some power tools.

Before the crime had even been reported, senior members of the gang got wind of the theft and decided to deal with it in-house.

The punishment was tough but innovative.

First, he was ordered to return the goods to their rightful owner, then to ride his bike to visit the Darwin chapter.

The riding instructions were simple: just say “hello” then return directly to Victoria, a round-trip of about 7500km.

Terrence Tognolini found himself in trouble at the Hells Angels clubhouse.

There are many worse punishments than that in the crime world, which is far less merciful than the courts. In jail, for instance, “Peter thieves” — those who steal from other prisoners’

cells — can have their fingers slammed in cell doors. That is if they don’t get “napalmed” with sugar or jam in boiling water or stabbed with a “shank”, as in a sharpened toothbrush or similar.

Outlaw bikies are expected to break the laws of the land with impunity but if they break their club rules they are in big trouble, as Hells Angel Terrence Tognolini discovered in 2007 after he was sprung tampering with under-age girls.

The beating Tognolini got at the Hells Angel Nomads clubhouse in Thomastown is legendary. They inked over his Angels tattoos first, and tipped his bleeding body on to the nature strip and called his brother to come and “take away your trash”.

Bikie Shane Bowden’s execution was caught on CCTV near his Gold Coast home.

More recently, of course, Fink-turned-Mongol Shane Bowden was shot in the leg at Epping just two weeks after being picked up by a limousine from Loddon prison last winter. Going to the Gold Coast to recuperate didn’t help. They shot him dead there last October.

Then there’s the case of Giuseppe “Joey” Russo, who bashed both his parents to death just to hurry up the inheritance a bit because he needed money for his street drag-racer, as you do.

Not everyone in jail agreed with Joey’s family values and so, on one Fathers Day, fellow inmates flogged him senseless. Prison humour, rough justice or both?

EVERYONE’S A CRITIC

Mongols bikie Toby Mitchell has turned TV critic, spraying another big personality from the other side of the law enforcement divide.

Mitchell took to social media on Sunday night to make unkind remarks about former homicide squad detective Ron Iddles, whose new homicide series is running prime-time on Channel 7.

Iddles said he’s never met Mitchell and doesn’t know what his problem is but got a good laugh from being called fat by the colourful bikie.

He pointed out he’s lost weight — but “I thank him for his comments”.

Even when he was more cuddly looking than he is lately, Iddles wasn’t a soft touch, according to someone who should know — the double murderer Giuseppe “Joey” Russo, referred to above.

Russo told cell mates that Iddles was relentless in his pursuit, regularly calling him long after midnight with the same message: “I’m going to arrest you”.

Fashion plate, animal lover and now TV critic Toby Mitchell.

CLONED IN NARRE WARRANT LAND

It is simply not true that everything bad that happens east of Melbourne goes down in Narre Warren. It just seems that way.

The reality is that Cranbourne, Doveton, “Dandybong” and Frankston all have their moments, although “Franganistan” jokes have dropped off a bit with the fierce competition from other suburban hot spots.

The latest outbreak of badness in “Narre Warrant” is a number plate manufacturing operation which police raided recently.

Officers from the southern metropolitan tactical unit seized cloned and stolen plates, manufacturing equipment, drugs and weapons when they raided a Denver Drive address before dawn.

Police said it was part of “an ongoing investigation into the manufacturing and distribution of cloned Victorian number plates which are used in high-volume crime.”

Police say they uncovered a large quantity of methamphetamine, cannabis, pills, three swords and a stun gun.

They arrested a man, 36, who has been charged with car theft, seven counts of handling stolen goods, seven counts of making a false document, seven of forging documents and possessing methamphetamine, cannabis, ecstasy and heroin. Not to mention the usual counts of possessing a prohibited weapon and dealing with property suspected of being proceeds of crime.

As Deadline readers know, organised crime figures are big on using cloned plates to muddy their tracks. Bodgie plates that duplicate those on similar model vehicles have been used in several underworld murders.

SURVEILLANCE? IT’S A JOKE

Rocco “Hollywood” Arico has had plenty of close police scrutiny over the years but we suspect someone in his old neighbourhood might be having a laugh.

One of our spies sometimes walks past the glamorous gangster’s palatial former Moonee Ponds residence, a veritable mansion unkindly dubbed the Ice Castle by law enforcement types.

As this source cruised by the other day, an unusual wi-fi network name popped on to his mobile phone screen. It read: “Victoria Police surveillance unit”.

Most likely a joke from the sort of funsters who give their wi-fi network as “ASIO”. There would be no point keeping an eye on the former Casa Arico because the man himself is currently staying in rather less salubrious lodgings as a guest of Her Majesty.

And before that, he had moved to a sensational place across town near Brighton that he said his dear old mamma owned.

It seems such a pity that poor Rocco is going to be in for a shocko when he gets out of the steel-bar motel. He is going to be deported, all because mamma and poppa didn’t bother with getting Skip citizenship when he was a little tacker.

Rocco Arico can’t make much use of the ‘Victoria Police surveillance unit’ wi-fi from prison. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

SIZE OF DOG MATTERS, AFTER ALL

The saying goes that it’s the size of the fight in the dog that matters, not the size of the dog in the fight.

That’s true up to a point. But it’s not the way the defence will be arguing in a magistrate court appearance scheduled for this summer.

An anonymous sporting identity has been accused by someone who lives nearby of assaulting him and of encouraging his dog to bite the supposed victim.

The complainant claims the attacker had tattoos on his knuckles and that his dog was a big, savage, Rhodesian ridgeback.

The problem with this, according to our paralegal sources, is that the alleged “attacker” in question does not have tattoos on his knuckles — and his dog is a little, mild cavoodle.

The confusion is probably because a ridgeback dog lives down the same street, possibly with some heavily tattooed people.

Oddly, at this stage, local police don’t seem interested in the basic identification problems in the case. Which means they are going to be red-faced when the defence produces the cavoodle in court to compare with, say, a life-size picture of a ridgeback for the benefit, and possible amusement, of the magistrate.

Stubby holders done up as highway patrol vests.

COP COPYRIGHT STUBBY SHOCK

Stubby holders are like cricketers, they come in all shapes, sizes and colours.

There are rugged canvas Drizabone holders, black wetsuit material holders, holders with pictures of famous racehorses in action, and endless promotional ones. But the clubhouse leader for innovation goes to the stubby holders that are miniature police fluorescent vests, as worn by highway patrol officers.

A tip: if you get caught drinking and driving with one of these, it’s probably not going to help … unless, of course, you are actually in “the job”.