Mount Maunganui Greazy Dogs gang members fined for illegal Facebook raffle

Greazy Dogs members Maurice Walker (left) and Jesse Fisher were fined for running an illegal raffle for a G-Rod motorcycle because they didn't have the necessary gambling licence. Photo / NZME

Two patched members of the Greazy Dogs MC gang have been fined after they ran an illegal raffle, which they claimed was to raise funds to take about 200 children to Rainbow’s End.

Maurice Ti Barry Walker and Jesse Wiheti Fisher ran “high-value prize raffles” for $50 a ticket, with the advertised prizes including a 2005 V-Rod motorcycle or $10,000 cash.

There was no information about where or how the raffle was going to be drawn, but it was due to happen on March 2 last year.

The pair came to the attention of the Department of Internal Affairs because a Class 3 gambling licence, which they did not have, is required if a prize for gambling exceeds $5000.

Other cash prizes advertised included four of $1000, five of $500, 10 of $250 and five of $200.

In an affidavit, Walker told a Tauranga District Court judge the purpose of the raffle was to raise $18,000 to take “tamariki from his community on a trip to Rainbow’s End in Auckland”.

The men said they were using the raffle to fundraise to take children to Rainbow's End in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell

When Judge Paul Geoghegan queried this, commenting “that’s a lot of tamariki going to Rainbow’s End?”, Walker replied, “about 200″.

About 1000 entries were available for the draw, which could amount to a return of $50,000 if all tickets were sold.

For that level of proceeds, the gambling needed to be conducted by a society and the net proceeds must not benefit a private individual.

Neither Walker, 57, nor Fisher, 40, had the required Class 3 gambling licences.

Posts advertising the raffle were made by a social media account connected to Walker between December 2023 and March 2024.

One contained his bank account number and the post invited people to comment how many tickets they wanted or contact Walker directly.

Fisher’s bank account details were included in another post, requesting people to transfer money for tickets into the account with their name and the number of tickets.

The posts were promoted with comments including “tickets available whānau/Gangsters GDMC Bike Raffle”.

The court summary of facts said that, given Walker’s association with the Greazy Dogs, it “is likely GDMC stands for ‘Greazy Dogs Motorcycle Club’”.

The raffle was promoted as a "GDMC" raffle, which the prosecution said referred to the Greazy Dogs gang. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Facebook posts were publicly available and promoted the raffle.

When the Department of Internal Affairs searched Walker’s address in Mount Maunganui, a notebook with “raffle tickets” written on the front was found, along with bike raffle tickets.

At Fisher’s address, two notebooks were found that referred to a bike raffle.

Along with the tickets for the draw, officers found several other raffle tickets with different prizes, including a new 2019 motorbike.

Between December 18, 2023, and February 27, 2024, about $9400 was paid into Walker’s account, with transfers containing references such as “raffle”, “raff”, “raffl” and “ticket”.

There were also transactions for amounts in multiples of $50, which investigators said supported an inference that they too were for raffle tickets, given the ticket price.

During that same period, about $4650 was transferred into Fisher’s account and a notebook found at his address “suggested a total of $43,000 had been obtained from sales (cash and transfer) and a further $6500 was expected”.

The summary of facts said this amounted to “a total of $49,500″, which would have delivered a profit of $29,500, after taking into account the costs of the prizes.

A search of the addresses found they were both keeping a written record of ticket numbers, payments and allocation to entrants. Bundles of cash were also found.

Both men were represented in court by defence lawyer Michael Douglas, who advised the judge that all the money had been returned to those who had bought tickets and there was “no outstanding loss”.

Both men pleaded guilty to the three charges they jointly faced of conducting illegal gambling, making a direct or indirect pecuniary gain from illegal gambling, and promoting illegal gambling.

Judge Geoghegan referred to Walker’s affidavit, which said: “I was advertising the raffle openly and I was trying to encourage as many entries as possible.

“I did not realise I was breaking the law. Obviously, I wouldn’t have been making publicly viewable Facebook posts about the raffle if I knew it was illegal.”

Judge Geoghegan said there was “some force” in that statement.

The prosecution did not dispute that all the money had been returned.

Judge Geoghegan fined the men $500 each, per charge, and they were ordered to pay court costs on each charge.

Hannah Bartlett is a Tauranga-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She previously covered court and local government for the Nelson Mail, and before that was a radio reporter at Newstalk ZB.