Matthew James McKenzie denied bail in Brisbane Supreme Court after car chase, bashing

A Qld man allegedly linked to the Rebels accused, alongside two other men, of chasing a professional gambler referred to as a “rat” down in their cars and bashing him has been refused bail.

Matthew James McKenzie. Picture: Facebook

A Queensland man allegedly linked to the Rebels bikie gang accused of having “counselled, procured or aided” two bikies to ram a professional gambler referred to as a “rat” off the road and bash him, fracturing his face, has been refused bail.

Matthew James McKenzie’s barrister David Jones KC applied for his release on bail in the Supreme Court in Brisbane last Thursday, arguing that new material shows his client was not a member of a group “phone chat” police allege is used by Rebels bikies or close bikie associates.

Mr Jones also submitted that the alleged victim’s injuries were not as severe as first thought.

But in a decision handed down on Monday, Justice Soraya Ryan refused to grant bail, finding McKenzie was a risk of harming the gambler if freed on bail.

barrister David Jones KC

She also ruled that the new material contained in witness statements and other evidence does not “materially change” an earlier court ruling refusing bail.

Justice Ryan stated she was prepared to assume that prosecutors evidence of grievous bodily harm may not be strong.

In her reasons she noted that prosecutors alleged McKenzie took a photo of the gambler’s car using his mobile phone about an hour before his alleged Rebels bikie mates chased the gambler’s Mercedes after he left the gym and rammed him off the road near Palmview on the Sunshine Coast.

Police earlier alleged he was leaving a gym in Warana in his Mercedes Benz.

McKenzie is alleged to have procured Nicholas William Pozzebon and Nathan Peter John Dyson to follow the man on September 18 last year.

Pozzebon was alleged to have pursued the alleged victim in a Dodge RAM ute, and Dyson was alleged to have driven a Ford Ranger and McKenzie was alleged to have been a passenger in the RAM.

Matthew James McKenzie. Picture: Facebook

“After chasing the complainant in his car, the RAM forced it off the road,” Justice Ryan states in her reasons, summarising the prosecution case.

“Both vehicles travelled through a fence, over an embankment and into a field before they crashed and halted.

“The complainant’s car’s airbags deployed, and its windows were smashed.

“The complainant was removed from his car by Pozzebon and Dyson. He was then assaulted by them and left with facial fractures and other injuries,” Justice Ryan notes, in her summary of the police allegations.

The court heard a witness described seeing the gambler’s Mercedes “become airborne” before the crash, then seeing Pozzebon and Dyson “reef by force” the gambler from his car.

Another witness saw the RAM ute become airborne as it crashed through a fence as it chased the Mercedes.

The crash followed a chase where the Dodge RAM ran into the back of the gambler’s Mercedes “on purpose about four times”, police allege.

The gambler was told by Pozzebon or Dyson to tell police he had no recall the pursuit or the bashing and he did as he was told, the court heard.

The gambler later discharged himself from hospital against medical advice and did not have surgery.

Nicholas William Pozzebon. Picture: Contributed

Later Pozzebon and Dyson are alleged to have exchanged text messages on a chat group for Rebels bikies or close bikie associates called “SSC Power 2.0” calling the gambler a “rat: for talking to police.

“So the c*** is a rat?” a group member asks Pozzebon.

Days before the September 18 bashing, the gambler had hired his own security and varied his usual routine in an attempt to keep save, police allege.

This came after McKenzie allegedly threatened him in August or September to refund two investments in his gambling business called Worldwide Sporting Investments Pty Ltd, (WSI) the decision states.

McKenzie is alleged to have “claimed to have funded investments in WSI by two other people”, the decision states.

Police earlier alleged that McKenzie withdrew $58,000 from the gambler’s business in late May 2024, having invested $50,000.

McKenzie is alleged to have sent a “threat” text message to the gambler’s business partner on May 21: “You might want to get my money sorted as you are involved with this and I told you from day one that if this s*** turned bad it would get bad for everyone”.

Nathan Peter John Dyson. Picture: Facebook

A second text stated: “Or give me [the complainant’s] address and you and I are even”, McKenzie is alleged to have texted the gambler’s business partner.

It came after he allegedly told the business partner that he was “involved in a bikie gang”.

On September 14 the gambler received, via a third party, a video of himself at his gym, which suggested that he was under surveillance of some kind, however McKenzie is not alleged to have sent or made this video.

McKenzie has been charged with grievous bodily harm with an aggravating circumstance of belonging to a serious organised crime gang, as well as dangerous operation of a vehicle while speeding and endangering the safety of a person in a car with intent.

If convicted of grievous bodily harm with the circumstance of aggravation he faces an extra seven years in jail on top of any sentence.

This was his second failed attempt to get Supreme Court bail, with Justice Martin Burns refusing him bail on October 31 last year.

At that hearing McKenzie’s barrister Malcolm Harrison “conceded that” his client was an associate of Pozzebon and Dyson who Mr Harrison said “were members of” the Rebels bikie gang.

McKenzie has no criminal history.

Justice Ryan concluded that the strength of the evidence that McKenzie “procured et cetera Pozzebon and Dyson’s unlawful and dangerous conduct is enough to inherently raise an unacceptable risk that he would attempt to interfere with, or harm” the gambler if he were granted bail.

Dyson has been charged with contravening an order about accessing an electronic, endangering the safety of a person in a vehicle, grievous bodily harm (organised crime), operating a vehicle dangerously by speeding and having drug present in his system while driving.

Pozzebon has been charged with the same offences as Mr McKenzie alongside a charge of having drug present in his system while driving and wearing a prohibited item in public.

Originally published as Matthew James McKenzie denied bail in Brisbane Supreme Court after car chase, bashing