Police head to court in bid to seize Head Hunters gang pad in Christchurch

The Head Hunters gang pad in Christchurch. Photo /Kurt Bayer

Police say the Head Hunters’ Wigram gang pad is “tainted” by the proceeds of crime and should be seized by the Crown.

They have gone to the High Court in Christchurch for a three-day hearing to seize the property at 31 Vickerys Rd, taking action against three people said to be associated with the gang. The gang is opposing any order being granted by Justice Rachel Dunningham.

It became clear from the evidence on the hearing’s first day, that gangs keep detailed written financial records.

One witness said he used to be a member of the Head Hunters gang, and spent five months as “manager” at the gang house. He handled the money and recorded income and expenditure in a black and red-covered notebook which was produced as an exhibit in court.

It recorded such things as rent payments, proceeds from the sale of a motorcycle and a food truck, and expenditure on food for a “family day”.

The witness said he received the book from another member in November 2017 and kept the records for five months before passing it on to another person.

There was $3245 recorded as the balance before a motorcycle was sold for money for the gang, pushing the total up to $8745. The bike had been sold as “koha” for a prospect who was leaving the gang. “He left happy. There was no intimidation or anything like that,” the witness told the court.

He said he kept the records “to keep me safe and make sure people didn’t think I was ripping them off”. Otherwise he would have expected to be questioned by the group.

Detective Sergeant Brendan Patten, the officer in charge of the case, from the police’s Southern Asset Recovery Unit, told of a car being stopped in August 2016 with four men inside, including one gang associate and a witness in the civil case. The car contained electronic scales, a methamphetamine pipe, 22g of meth, and resealable bags.

The car also contained $26,770 in cash and a small red notebook with a pen attached by a string. The police want to produce the notebook as an exhibit but defence counsel Sam Wimsett is seeking to have it ruled as inadmissible, as “hearsay” evidence, and it has been provisionally admitted at present.

The book records figures “for the pokie machines only”.

The property was formerly occupied by the Epitaph Riders motorcycle gang.

The police are calling evidence about tens of thousands of improvements made by the Head Hunters including new steel gates, fencing, sleep-outs and paintwork. The gang says its members did the work themselves and were mostly given the building materials.

The hearing is continuing.