THE president of Wangaratta’s Tramps motorcycle club has given up his battle to regain his gun licence, leaving three other club members to fight a test case that began yesterday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Four Tramps members took their dispute to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a bid to overturn a Firearms Committee’s decision to back the decision by police in 2012 to cancel their licences.
But club president Ronny Harding yesterday pulled out of the challenge without saying why he had done so.
Michael Oxenham, Mal Dinsdale and David Winzer have gone ahead with their appeal.
They say they used firearms to hunt, control vermin, and, in the case of Mr Oxenham, for work as a mobile butcher.
It is believed to be the first time since police seized more than 100 guns from Victorian bikies in August 2012 that the cancellation of a licence held by those deemed not “fit and proper” people has been appealed at VCAT.
Lawyers for Victoria Police chief commissioner Ken Lay yesterday said he would argue that while the 12-member Tramps club was not an “outlaw” gang, there was a clear relationship with the notorious Hells Angels gang.
“The landscape within the motorcycle club’s culture has changed and they have been more willing to associate with criminal gangs,” police told the tribunal.
“They are not fit and proper persons to maintain licences.”
The tribunal heard that in March last year the Hells Angels summoned supporter clubs, including the Tramps, to a meeting before Bandidos serjeant-at-arms Toby Mitchell was shot at Melton.
Mr Harding was a “close associate of a very senior figure within the Hells Angels”, police said.
The Tramps members who attended the meeting had left by the time violence erupted.
Mr Lay’s lawyers said a dangerous allegiance to criminals was evident in that none of the seven Tramps members had contacted police when they had realised what was about to happen.
But Trevor Monti, SC, for the three Tramps members, said his clients were respected community members, and their case should not be tarnished by the criminal activities of other clubs.
“It’s guilt by association. It’s unprincipled and uncalled for,” Mr Monti said.
“We resist the notion that is going to come in materials rel-ating to the Hells Angels.
“We submit it is a witch hunt and it is unfair.”
The hearing before VCAT vice-president Marilyn Harbison continues.