Gang pad shooters jailed
Four men have been jailed for the ‘‘wild west’’ shoot up of a Taranaki gang pad.
The pre-meditated, ram-raid on Waitara’s Highway 61 headquarters in 2017, has seen James Thomson, the ‘‘main player’’, jailed for five years and three months.
Mitchell Whittaker, was sentenced to seven years and two months, brother Caleb Whittaker for two years and six months, and Sharif Moke, proven to have the least involvement, will serve one year and 11 months.
The sentences were handed down in a two hour hearing in New Plymouth District Court on Friday.
The men were a part of a group of at least eight people who ploughed two cars through the compound gates of the motorcycle gang pad and then riddled it with bullets.
Four people were inside the headquarters at the time and have told the court how they hit the ground and ducked for cover.
The December 5 evening attack was the retaliation from former patched member Thomson, known as Buzz, after the gang gave him the boot.
Following rising tensions between him and the gang, Thomson recruited his co-offenders and, all high on methamphetamine, they donned balaclavas and gloves and carried out the planned assault.
The motive of the attack was to send ‘‘a message’’ to the gang by terrorising them, it was heard in court.
At the sentencing, Judge Garry Barkle described the shootup as ‘‘bizarre’’ and said it was only by the ‘‘grace of god’’ that it didn’t result in a homicide.
‘‘It’s almost like the wild west,’’ he said.
Crown prosecutor Jacob Bourke said some of the Highway 61 members and their associates considered the headquarters their home.
To say they should expect criminal activity because they are a gang would be to victim blame, he said.
‘‘It doesn’t matter if they were in the Highway 61s. It doesn’t give anyone the right to shoot them.’’
In his oral submissions, defence lawyer Paul Keegan said it may be a home but it was still a gang pad.
He quickly listed several Highway 61 members he had represented in the past.
Judge Barkle said it was a private residence and none of the four men had a right to be there.