’Powerful tool’ puts bikie WAGs in hot seat
BIKIES’ wives and girlfriends are being hauled in for questioning under the threat of jail if they don’t answer questions about their partners’ criminal activity.
As Australia’s bikie wars intensify, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission has been holding powerful secret interviews.
Family members, business associates, accountants and bikies themselves have been targeted in the forensic investigations.
The coercive hearings compel people to answer the ACIC’s questions, or be sent to jail until they do.
“There’s nothing like putting pressure on an individual by questioning, legitimately questioning, their family and others around them, who may be living off the illicit profits that are being gained from criminal activity,” said ACIC chief executive Mike Phelan.
Bikie clubs have a code that demands club members do not co-operate with police – even if they were a victim of crime – and any co-operation with police can lead to payback attacks.
Some have spent months, even years in jail, without charge because they refused to provide information in the secret hearings.
In one case, a South Australian bikie refused to hand over the details of who owned six mobile phones and BlackBerry devices. He was jailed indefinitely, or until he answered the questions, on contempt of court charges.
Another bikie spent at least six months in jail last year for refusing to answer questions.
Mr Phelan, who started his career at the Australian Federal Police in 1985, said coercive hearings were a “powerful tool”.
“They have to answer the questions. There’s no right of self-incrimination,” he said.
“It’s a criminal offence if they mislead or give false evidence as well. And also, they can be held in contempt for not answering the questions.”
The ACIC cannot name those who have been grilled in a coercive hearing, nor can they reveal how many were currently in jail for refusing to answer questions.
Australia’s drug industry is estimated to be worth $10bn per year, with outlaw motorcycle gangs controlling at least $3bn of that market.
The profit margin is up to 50 per cent, with bikie gangs pocketing up to $1.5bn year – allowing them to funnel those rivers of cash into other legitimate businesses.
Mr Phelan said the interviews were crucial in some investigations, and were used to uncover specific details about bikie gangs and their “organisational” weaknesses.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, based in Canberra, has branches across the country that monitor organised crime, and pass on information to local police and the Australian Federal Police.