Controversial Kiwi gang-based game app shelved after short life

The image of Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart in Home and Away, was used in the gang game app, after replacing a former gang member's image.

A controversial gaming app based on gang violence has come to a sticky end after a short life.

"The application has been removed as a result of disruptive ads despite false allegations that the removal was based on the threats," said a representative of Supremacy, the developer of the game called Mongrel Mob Defence.

The gaming app had been available on Google Play. Described by Supremacy as a "comical time-waster", the app was launched on Friday.

Initially, gamers were presented with a caricature of deceased Mongrel Mob member William Hurinui, who was affiliated to the gang's South Island-based Notorious chapter and was known as Greeco Notorious.

But relatives of Hurinui had objected to the app.

The image of Ray Meagher, who plays Alf Stewart in Home and Away, was used in the gang game app, after replacing a former gang member's image.

After the developers received legal and physical threats, they replaced the portrait with one of Alf Stewart, a character from Australian TV show Home and Away played by Ray Meagher.

The Herald understands the producers of Home and Away, the Seven Network, weren't asked beforehand about use of the image of Stewart/Meagher. A spokesman, however, declined to comment on the matter.