A “considerable weight of evidence” linking Brett Collins to the Gypsy Joker outlaw motorcycle club means he has failed in his appeal to get his tattoo parlour back.
Bad news for the Albury businessman was handed down by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s appeal panel this week. Mr Collins had Twin City Tattoo shops in both Albury and Wodonga, but had been banned from running the Albury shop from April 12 after he was deemed to not be “a fit and proper person”.
He was allowed to continue running the business before the appeal, but now must cease by August 20.
When the NSW Secretary for Fair Trading first denied Mr Collins a licence, he immediately stated that “I’ve done nothing wrong”, but failed in an appeal to NCAT. His next argument to the appeal panel was that NCAT made an error because “it was not reasonably open to draw an inference that Mr Collins was vulnerable to influence, infiltration or pressure to engage in nefarious activities of an OMC”.
Mr Collins also said he had suffered an injustice as a result of the judgment. But NSW Police says he was the founder and president of the Wodonga Gypsy Joker chapter and OMC membership is usually a lifelong commitment.
Tribunal deputy president, judge Susanne Cole, and senior member James Kearney rejected the idea that Mr Collins was denied a fair hearing and said there was no basis for appeal.
“The tribunal had a firm and accurate grasp of the evidence,” they stated. “It must have been plain to the applicant from the time that he received the reasons for the Secretary’s decision, that his membership of the Gypsy Joker OMC had given rise to an inference that it would be contrary to the public interest to grant his application for an operator’s licence.”
Department of Fair Trading laws were introduced in 2013 to stop turf wars between bikie clubs using the tattoo industry. “There was a considerable weight of evidence … which supported the tribunal’s conclusion as to the public interest,” the NCAT members said.
Make Sure You are Subscribed to our Facebook page!
Source: The Border Mail