After a nearly eight-year legal fight, B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Office has lost its bid to take possession of the Hells Angels clubhouse in Kelowna.
The Director of Civil Forfeiture had sought to have the clubhouses of three chapters of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club forfeited, including the ones in Kelowna, Vancouver and Nanaimo.
According to the B.C. Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday, the director had argued the clubhouses should be turned over because they will likely be used as “instruments of unlawful activity.”
“The director submits that Hells Angels clubhouses serve important functions in enabling and empowering members of the Hells Angels to engage in unlawful activity while reducing the risk of detection by the police and prosecution by the Crown by acting as local bases of operation as safe houses; intelligence hubs; and planted flags,” according to the decision.
But Justice Barry Davies said there is a lack of evidence that the Nanaimo and Kelowna clubhouses were used for criminal activity in the past, and it’s been more than 14 years since the East Vancouver clubhouse was used to traffic cocaine and methamphetamine.
Davies also relied on the evidence of a former Hells Angels member who is now a police informant, David Atwell, who was paid $75,000 to testify and placed in witness protection.
Atwell confirmed there was a known rule to not discuss criminal activity or commit crimes at the clubhouses. The buildings were used as a gathering place.
“I also find that even if, from time to time, surreptitious communications concerning an illegal transaction were initiated inside a clubhouse, they were then moved off-site to preclude detection by uninvolved members of the charter,” Davies wrote in his decision.
Davies also found the director failed to prove that the Hells Angels is a worldwide criminal organization.
“Although the evidence adduced does establish that many members of the Hells Angels in British Columbia and Ontario have committed serious criminal offences, there is a paucity of admissible evidence concerning such criminal offending in other jurisdictions.”