A motorbike gang's national sergeant based in Napier has been sentenced to six years' jail on charges laid after police found an arsenal of firearms, ammunition and explosives he claimed were for protection after the alleged murder of friend and leader Peter Lui.
Stuff reports that in a search of42-year-old Seth John Forde's Outlaws MC pad bedroom in the Napier's Pandora Industrial District on May 12 – just over six weeks after the March 29 death – police also found methamphetamine and $80,000.
Having pleaded guilty to 12 charges, he was sentenced by Judge Russell Collins in Napier District Court on Tuesday.
Stuff reports the court was told that in interviews with police, Forde related the possession of his weaponry to "protection" needed after a Monday-morning stabbing of friend and 63-year-old Outlaws national president Lui outside the club's headquarters in Mersey St, Napier.
The charges Forde admitted were nine of unlawful possession of a firearm or ammunition (which included five guns and two pipe bombs), one of unlawfully carrying a firearm, one representing multiple offences of methamphetamine supply, and one of possessing methamphetamine for supply.
Most of the arsenal was discovered in Forde's room, revealed to police by the offender in a search after he was found with a pistol in his jacket when stopped for driving while disqualified.
