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From: PerthNow
March 23, 2011
CLASSY LOOK: The Coffin Cheater bikie headquarters in Bayswater undergoes a security transformation. Source: PerthNow
WALLED FORTRESS: Coffin Cheater bikies have removed heavy sleeper walls, replacing them with a temporary steel picket fence. Source: PerthNow
FORTRESS: The walled Coffin Cheaters Bayswater headquarters before they agreed to a police directive to pull down fortress walls. Source: PerthNow
OUTLAW bikie gang, the Coffin Cheaters, are today tearing down fortifications at their Bayswater clubhouse - just two days before a police directive was to expire.
Earlier this month, police
announced that WA's biggest bikie gang had agreed to remove fortifications
from the Raleigh Rd headquarters, avoiding a lengthy court battle.
Cheetah Investments Pty Ltd, the owner of the property, accepted conditions
set out in a fortifications removal notice issued by Police Commissioner
Karl O'Callaghan.
Today work began.
Under the directive, the club must remove sleepers from the front wall of
the fortress and replace the fixtures with steel mesh or see-through
material.
The gang was also ordered to remove the small front gate and replace it with
steel mesh and an unlockable gate so the courtyard and public areas is
accessible.
In addition, external surveillance cameras which monitor the street must be
removed and hardwood internal doors replaced with ``normal'' interior doors.
On January 24, the Corruption and Crime Commission issued a fortification
warning notice to the property owners, giving them 14 days to respond before
a fortification removal notice could be issued.
Cheetah Investments Pty Ltd had until February 25 to either agree to remove
the fortifications or make an application to the WA Supreme Court to appeal
the fortification removal notice.
If the fortifications are not removed or modified by Friday, March 25, the
Police Commissioner can order action be taken to remove the fixtures.
Earlier this month, Coffin Cheaters' spokesman Peter ``Fuzzy'' Godfree said
the clause of greatest concern to the club was the order for an unlockable
front gate that would make the premises ``accessible to the general
public''.
It is not clear if this clause has been met.
Comment has been sought from the Coffin Cheaters.
WA's anti-fortification laws have been used once since being introduced in
2003 after the car bomb assassination of former CIB boss Don Hancock.
In August 2008, WA Supreme Court Justice Peter Blaxell ordered the Gypsy
Jokers to remove fortifications at their Maddington clubhouse, including a
2m-high wall, remote-controlled gates, surveillance cameras and floodlights.
