Police visited the Tribesmen gang pad in Woolston, Christchurch, which is now the subject of a restraining order, in December last year. Photo / NZME
Police visited the Tribesmen gang pad in Woolston, Christchurch, which is now the subject of a restraining order, in December last year. Photo / NZME
Police are making moves to confiscate a $540,000 property in Christchurch which has been used as clubrooms for the Tribesmen gang.
A recently published court decision revealed police obtained an interim restraining order over the Tanner St, Woolston property last October.
Police said this week they would not comment further on the matter as it was still before the courts.
However, a restraining order is the first legal step in seizing property considered “tainted” by unlawful activity under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 - a law intended to stop criminals from benefiting from their ill-gotten gains.
A further High Court order will be required before the Crown forfeits the property. This often happens some months after a restraining order is issued.
In the meantime, a restraining order prevents the property being sold or disposed of.
The Tanner St property has a rateable value of $540,000, dated 2022, and includes a house on the front of the section and a large Totalspan shed at the rear.
High Court Justice Melanie Harland, who granted the restraining order, said the shed was known to police as the gang headquarters or clubrooms of the Christchurch arm of the Tribesmen Motorcycle Club (TMC).
“It has been used by the TMC in this way since about April 2021,” she said.
Although of North Island origin, The Tribesmen are considered a dominant group in Christchurch’s complex gang scene.
In 2022, 11 Tribesmen were found guilty of charges stemming from a bloody attack on Mongrel Mob rivals outside the court complex in the central city in July 2020.
They said they found drug utensils and a sawn-off shotgun and ammunition inside the shed.
At that time, the shed featured a large sign that said “Life behind bars” and a cartoon image of a skeleton behind the handlebars of a motorcycle. That sign has now been removed from the property.
The property in Tanner St, Woolston, photographed this week. The large sign saying "Life behind bars" has been removed from the property. Photo / NZME
The property’s listed owner is a company, Bicycle Brothers Ltd, incorporated in 2004, of which Michael Greville Wheeler is the sole director.
Bicycle Brothers and Wheeler are listed as respondents in the police application to restrain the property, along with Charles Roger Wheeler, who was a director of the company until 2022.
In granting the restraining order, Justice Harland said the Bicycle Brothers company had receipted lump-sum payments of rent, in cash, totaling $70,200, which Michael or Charles Wheeler had banked into accounts that ultimately serviced a mortgage over 18 Tanner St.
Grounds to believe ‘payments are tainted’
“I am satisfied there are reasonable grounds to believe that rental payments made to all or some of the respondents have funded the mortgage over the property, and that these payments are tainted,” she said.
Justice Harland said she had received affidavits which outlined activities associated with the Tribesmen “which provide reasonable cause to suspect that its members are associated with the possession and supply of methamphetamine”.
She said various improvements had been made to the shed but the police had not been able to identify any payments being made by the respondents to fund them.
“There is therefore reasonable cause to suspect that these improvements have been funded by the TMC through either payments made by members from tainted funds or through unidentified cash payments to tradespeople, and/or to buy materials used for the improvements.”
The judge said there were grounds to believe Bicycle Brothers Ltd had unlawfully benefited from significant criminal activity.
“To be clear, I am satisfied that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the real estate property at 18 Tanner Street is tainted property.”
She made orders that the property was not to be disposed of and should be transferred to the custody and control of the Official Assignee - a government official who, among other things, administers assets seized under the Proceeds of Crime legislation.
The police action to seize the Tanner St property follows other cases in which assets have been seized and forfeited from Tribesmen members under the legislation.
In 2021, more than $200,000 was forfeited after it was found in a holiday park cabin occupied by Tribesmen gang member Dennis Haunui four years earlier.
In February, a restraining order was issued over $45,000 cash, a ute, a high-end watch and a $12,500 men’s diamond ring taken from patched member Dylan Rudd Stuart during several interactions he had with police last year.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.
