Hells Angels civil forfeiture trial opens

VANCOUVER — The Hells Angels “are an extraordinarily sophisticated entity” fighting to preserve their brand to help members around the world commit criminal acts, a lawyer representing the B.C. government said Monday.

Brent Olthuis told B.C. Supreme Court that three B.C. biker clubhouses should be forfeited to the government because they would likely be used to commit crimes if the bikers are allowed to maintain control of them.

After more than a decade, the director of civil forfeiture’s lawsuit against the Hells Angels finally got underway before Justice Barry Davies at the Vancouver Law Courts on Monday.

It all started in November 2007 when police raided the Hells Angels’ Nanaimo clubhouse, which became the subject of the first civil forfeiture action. In 2012, the government agency filed suits to get clubhouses of the Vancouver East End and Kelowna chapters forfeited as well.

The suit alleges that if the Hells Angels get to keep the clubhouses, they will be used “to enhance the ability of a criminal organization, namely the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, to commit indictable offences.”

The Angels have filed a counter-claim, seeking to get B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Act declared unconstitutional.

Olthuis told Davies on Monday “this is a case fundamentally about things, and under the civil forfeiture statute, the likely use to which those things are going to be put in the future.”

He said the evidence at the trial would show that the clubhouses are used for nefarious purposes.

“These are the sites at which members will congregate for the purpose of counselling or conspiring to commit crimes of violence or financial gain,” he said.

“They are safe houses. They are places where members of the Hells Angels meet, where they recruit new members and support clubs, where they collect and store legal funds to defray legal costs for criminal prosecution, all in confidence.”

The Hells Angels also use the clubhouses to collect and store data on members, rivals, suspected informants and police investigations, Olthuis said.