Australasian Biker News
Bikies sentenced over clubhouse arson
By Jessica Marszalek
June 04, 2008 05:44pm
THREE bikies have been jailed and another set free today after pleading
guilty to burning down a rival gang's clubhouse.
Bandidos chapter president Blair Raymond Thomsen, 35, vice president
Ivan Glavas, 48, sergeant-at-arms Kenneth James Whittaker, 33, and
non-member John Debilla, 47, were today sentenced over the March 2007
attack on the Rebels' Brisbane headquarters in Albion.
The Brisbane District Court was told the Bandidos planned the attack as
retribution after Rebels members beat up Bandidos bikies with baseball
bats in a roadside attack at Bribie Island in late 2006.
Prosecutor Deborah Holliday told the court Thomsen had the biggest role
in the arson by selecting the target, while Whittaker lit the fire by
pouring petrol and throwing a lit wick through the roof.
She said while Glavas had not gone with the others to light the fire
because his wife was sick, he helped plan the attack, providing a
crowbar to access the roof and recruiting Debilla as the group's
get-away driver.
"It was purely and solely for retribution and revenge," Ms Holliday
said.
"It was likely to lead to further escalating violence between the two
clubs."
Thomsen and Whittaker were sentenced to five years jail, suspended after
20 months. Glavas was jailed for four years, suspended after 16 months.
But Debilla was allowed to walk free today after Senior Judge Gilbert
Trafford-Walker deemed the 417 days already served in custody sufficient
punishment.
Two former Bandidos members who took part in the attack - but cannot be
identified because of a suppression order - were last year sentenced to
five years jail, wholly suspended.