Troy Mercanti's partner 'cleaned out funds' for clubhouse

Tammy Kingdon

ACCUSED: Tammy Kingdon is in court accused of rorting funds to help purchase a clubhouse for The Finks. Picture: Ian Munro Source: PerthNow

Tammy Kingdon

ACCUSED: Tammy Kingdon leaves a court appearance in Perth. Source: PerthNow

THE partner of bikie Troy Mercanti "cleaned out" trust fund accounts set up for the children of one of his close friends and a murdered Coffin Cheater to help her purchase a Balga clubhouse for rival gang The Finks, a court heard.

Tammy Cherie Kingdon, 33, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of stealing and one of money laundering.

The Commonwealth Bank accounts were set up for the daughters of murdered bikie Marc Raoul Lucien Chabriere and Richard Vickers, a close friend of Mr Mercanti.

Chabriere was shot dead in his car in Welshpool in 1998 while Mr Vickers died in May 2000.

In the opening address of Ms Kingdon’s trial in the Perth District Court today, prosecutor Carmel Barbagallo said the accused, as trustee, siphoned about $54,000 from the accounts to help purchase The Finks clubhouse in August 2008.

Ms Barbagallo explained that Mercanti was a member of the Coffin Cheaters until 2008 when he defected to The Finks.
 


She said that Ms Kingdon, the mother of Mercanti’s two children, transferred the money into her own account on August 14, 2008.

“Twelve days later that money was used to help purchase The Finks clubhouse,” she said.

“She has cleaned out the trust accounts for these girls and closed the accounts.

But her counsel Stephen Shirrefs said she was perfectly entitled to invest the money she deemed appropriate in pursuit of capital grown for the trust funds.

“She did what she was entitled to do by law,” he said.

“This case is quite simple. In November 2001, Tammy Kingdon opens two cash management accounts into which the money is deposited and it sat there.

“To try and improve the return she then put it into term deposits.”

Mr Shirrefs said she signed a contract to purchase property in July 2008 and moved the trust money for the purchase to proceed.

He said Ms Kingdon remained as a trustee of clubhouse and that the investment was an acquisition for the children.

“You get better capital growth in real estate than you do with it (money) just sitting in the bank,” he said.

“In August 2008, The Finks motorcycle gang became leasees of the property.

“So what?

“She remained the trustee.


“She invested in real estate, an investment she was entitled to do under the Trustee Act 1962.”

In giving evidence, Mr Vickers daughter Claire said she remembered Mercanti and Coffin Cheater Eddie Withnall discussing setting-up a trust account for her following her father’s death.

Mercanti is currently serving a two-year jail term for assaulting a man in Northbridge.

The trial continues.