Magistrate’s stern parenting advice to bikie boss Kosh Radford

The boss of the Finks bikie gang has copped a courtroom lecture about his approach to fatherhood after being caught in a wild brawl at a Melbourne strip club.

Kosh Radford was fined for his involvement in a bikie brawl at a strip club.

A magistrate has given the Finks world president a lesson on fatherhood as he slapped him with a $6000 fine for his “thuggery” during a bikie brawl at a Melbourne strip club.

Magistrate Timothy Bourke told Kosh Radford, also known as Koshan Rashidi, that good dads don’t find themselves in clubs at 6.30am after the bikie’s lawyer submitted he was a family man and stay-at home-dad for his two young children.

Sentencing Radford in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, Mr Bourke said: “So simply ask yourself this Mr Radford: If you are truly a family man and a good father what are you doing out at that time of the night in the first place?

“Because that sort of behaviour is generally not what family men do.”

Finks ‘world president’ Koshan Rashidi outside court. Picture: Rebecca Parish

The court heard Radford was at the Centrefold Lounge on King St for a friend’s birthday when he punched a 37-year-old man, starting an all-in brawl, about 6.30am on March 24, 2019.

His brothers Jamshed Rashidi, 38, and Ahmad Rashidi, 24, then joined in the attack.

CCTV played in court showed the brawl spill into a room where a stripper providing a man with a private lap dance was forced to jump out of the way, as punches and kicks flew.

“It is serious offending — it’s simply thuggery,” Mr Bourke said, saying alcohol and drugs were not aggravating factors.

He said a man of Radford’s age and experience, having prior convictions for affray and connections with outlaw motorcycle gangs, should have known better.

“Once you throw a punch in those circumstances in front of a nightclub at 6.30 in the morning, the odds are it’s going to escalate,” he said.

“You would have known that.”

Defence lawyer Zyg Zayler said Radford moved to Melbourne from NSW “ironically for a quiet life about six years ago”.

Magistrate Timothy Bourke told Radford good dads don’t find themselves in clubs at 6.30am.

“While he still obviously has an interest in the cycling world, he is genuinely trying to live a quiet life,” Mr Zayler said.

“Certainly in the last four years he has not had any issues with the authorities.”

He said the concreter had taken on the role as stay-at-home dad throughout the coronavirus pandemic, while his wife worked full-time.

Explaining his actions at the club, Mr Zayler said Radford “felt that he was being menaced for being recognised for who he was, and as a result he lost it at that moment and threw the punch”.

“Certain comment was made to him and he’s highly regretful of the fact that he felt that it was a threatening remark and responded as he did,” Mr Zayler said.

Prosecutor Tim Spiteri pushed for Radford to be placed on a community correction order.

He said he was a patched member of the Finks OMCG and holds the title of “world president”.

But Mr Bourke took into account his guilty plea to one count of assault and punished him in a similar way to his brothers with a conviction and fine.

Jamshed and Ahmad Rashidi had initially been jailed for 75 days and 30 days respectively, but appealed and instead got $12,000 and $10,000 fines.