By Nick Toscano and Dan Oakes
THE owners of factories surrounding an outlaw motorcycle gang’s Dandenong clubhouse are being refused insurance cover after the property was fire-bombed and shot up in separate incidents.
Insurer CHU Underwriting Agencies has told the business owners in the industrial estate that it will not renew the insurance policy – which covers common property and public liability – when it expires on August 25 because the Bandidos clubhouse constitutes a “moral hazard” similar to that presented by brothels and gun shops.
READ: Bomb explodes at Bandidos’ Dandenong clubhouse
Factory owners at the 22 Dunn Crescent estate were advised of the decision after a bomb exploded outside the clubhouse’s steel-armoured front door on July 25. Earlier in the month, the clubhouse was shot at by someone armed with an AK-47.
The Bandidos and the Hells Angels have been engaged in a simmering feud since the shooting of Bandidos enforcer Toby Mitchell at a Melton industrial estate in March.
Arson and explosives squad Detective Sergeant Lionel Joseph said the explosion had been large enough to smash windows of neighbouring properties.
Owners corporation manager James Parnell, of Binks & Associates, said the cancellation of the insurance policy meant 80 other businesses located on the premises, including manufacturers and mechanics, could be unable to sell their properties and face multimillion-dollar exposure.
“It’s quite concerning for the other members of the owners corporation, namely because they won’t have insurance on their common property,” Mr Parnell said.
“Banks might call in their loans, and there are all those terrible things that go with having no insurance on a mortgaged property.”
Compounded by tough economic times, Mr Parnell said, some businesses at the complex “might be forced to close their doors” as a result. It is understood that two businesses are on the verge of closure.
“Other insurers all have similar exclusions, so we are inviting owners to take their own coverage at the moment in the hope we may get some insurance for public liability on the common grounds, but nothing’s guaranteed,” he said.
The owners corporation has written to the clubhouse owner, believed to be a Bandidos member, requesting that the club vacate the premises, but Mr Parnell has received no reply.
He said the July shooting and bomb blast had been the first incident of violence on the premises, saying the motorcycle club members “generally kept to themselves”.
The attacks on the Bandidos’ Dandenong clubhouse are part of a spate of shootings and fire-bombings at bikie headquarters across Melbourne.
The AK47 attack is believed to have been revenge for an assault on the Hells Angels’ new ‘Darkside’ Seaford chapter, which was shot up in June.
The Bros clubhouse in Yarraville was sprayed with bullets in the early hours on Sunday morning, as part of what is believed to be a feud with a rival bikie gang.
In March, Bandidos serjeant-at-arms Toby Mitchell was shot at a Melton industrial estate during a wild gunfight involving members of a number of clubs affiliated with the Bandidos and the Hells Angels. The estate is home to the clubhouses of the Hells Angels-linked Satan’s Soldiers and Bandidos allies the Diablos.
The shootout led to the declaration of a “war” between the two clubs, and a warning to all Victoria Police members that they should exercise extreme caution when dealing with members of the Bandidos and the Hells Angels.
Two Satan’s Soldiers clubhouses – the Melton property and another in Bendigo – have also been fire-bombed in the months since Mitchell was shot.
The problems at the Dandenong estate are also an indication of the growing influence of outlaw motorcycle gangs in the eastern suburbs. Apart from the Bandidos and the Hells Angels, the Rebels, the Immortals and the Comancheros, the Outlaws and the Coffin Cheasters have a presence in Melbourne’s east.
