Image Credit: Google Street View
June 11, 2020 - 11:14 AM
After an eight-year legal battle, B.C.'s civil forfeiture office has been unsuccessful in seizing a Kelowna Hells Angels clubhouse.
The civil forfeiture office sought to seize Hells Angel clubhouses in Kelowna, Vancouver and Nanaimo, claiming they will be used in the future for unlaw activity, according to a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling.
The Kelowna clubhouse at 871 Ellis Street has been a target of the civil forfeiture office since 2012 when it began proceedings against the registered owner. It has been fighting since 2008 to get the Nanaimo clubhouse.
READ MORE: Hell's Angels clubhouse in Kelowna still active despite civil forfeiture claim
“I find that the director’s submissions that the clubhouses are used as instruments of unlawful activity as “planted flags” are unproven and that it can not be proven the clubhouses will be used unlawfully in the future,” reads the decision from Justice Barry Davies.
“Although the director adduced evidence that proves that members and associates of the East End, Kelowna and Nanaimo chapters have been convicted of criminal offences that were committed after 2005, none of those offences were proven to have involved or engaged any use of the clubhouses,” he wrote in the ruling.
To read the full decision, go here.
To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berry or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
News from © iNFOnews, 2020