Under new anti-bikie rules, a brief trip to a Bunnings Warehouse has cost a member of the Rebels motorcycle gang more than $1,000.
Joseph Raimondi, a former close friend of the deceased Rebels manager Nick Martin, was given a hefty punishment on Wednesday for flaunting his “Rebels” tattoo while inside the hardware store’s Balcatta location in north Perth in July 2022.
After two further charges were dismissed by the prosecution, he entered a guilty plea to one count of violating West Australia’s anti-bikie statutes in Perth Magistrate’s Court.
In addition to a $1,000 punishment, he was also had to pay $260 in court costs.
The strict anti-bikie legislation of West Australia, which were implemented in December 2021, make it unlawful to display any gang symbol or emblem in public, including patches, jewelry, and tattoos.
State Crime Commander Gordon Fairman told Daily Mail Australia that “gang members identify themselves as such by wearing and exhibiting badges and insignia to intimidate and generate terror among the community.”
Michael Tudori, the 34-year-attorney, old’s said that Raimondi just walked inside Bunnings without stopping and that it was not as if he had “ripped off his shirt” to show off his tattoos to customers.
The highly inked Raimondi is seen holding a tub and a spatula in CCTV video that WA Police was able to get. His tattoo on the left side of his head is quite noticeable.
In order to conceal the tattoo, Mr. Tudori asserts that Raimondi has recently grown out his hair and used “a little makeup.”
Raimondi’s conduct were acknowledged as not being malicious by Magistrate Felicity Zempilas throughout the sentence process.
She defended the law, saying it was put in place to prohibit gang members from wearing the emblem in public since doing so terrified certain members of the public and ought to be punished.
The WA Police Force has preferred more than 60 charges pertaining to the exhibition of jewelry, apparel, and tattoos exhibiting gang symbols since the legislation’s adoption, according to Mr. Fairman.
35 of these charges had been found guilty as of January 24; the remaining cases were still pending in the courts.
The father of two will make two further court appearances in Perth’s Magistrate Court over the course of the next week in connection with two additional offences relating to the allegedly protruding tattoo.
One of the accusations relates to a picture that appeared on The West Australian’s front page in September, showing his tattoo clearly visible as he comforted mourners at the site of a bikie enforcer’s killing in Gnangara.
The second accusation is that, in June of last year, when visiting the Crown Casino in Burswood, he failed to conceal his tattoo.
In addition, Raimondi is accused of stealing a car and of having firearms, prescription drugs, and drug paraphernalia in his possession.
»Bunnings fined Balcatta bikie $1000 for Rebels gang tattoo under mullet«