Gang member Wayne Clarke sentenced for meth supply, 3D gun scheme and Covid lockdown escape

Wayne Clark is sentenced in Auckland DIstrict Court for attempting to manufacture 3D printed firearms, methamphetamine supply and other offences. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

A long-time gang member whose most recent offending included threatening to kill people from a smuggled phone inside prison, attempting to manufacture 3D guns, methamphetamine supply and sneaking out of Auckland during lockdown to collect debts has lost his bid for home detention.

Wayne Te Awawa John Clarke - better known in the criminal underworld as “Wayniac” or 666, which is tattooed on his neck - was sentenced today to five years and five months’ imprisonment.

The former Black Power member’s lawyer had asked the judge to apply an admittedly audacious 70 per cent discount to take into account several factors, including his guilty pleas, his difficult upbringing and his recent purported attempts at turning over a new leaf.

But his rehabilitation attempts have to be tempered by the fact he is currently prospecting with the Head Hunters gang, Judge Kathryn Maxwell said.

“The Crown would emphasise that Mr Clarke is a 42-year-old man who has been committing serious crimes for the past 20 years,” prosecutor Ryan Benic said, adding that the defendant’s recent attempts to improve himself are commendable but the public needed protection. “What he has displayed is a capacity to commit very serious offending.”

Authorities raided Clarke’s Pt England home in September 2021 after receiving permission from the High Court to listen in on his private communications with his partner. They found two industrial 3D printers, one of which was running, along with various parts for an FGC-9 semi-automatic pistol. FGC stands for “F*** Gun Control”, and instructions for printing the illicit weapon are easily accessible online despite New Zealand’s ban on such weapons.

Police also found a folder on his laptop labelled “3D print shit”.

Illegally manufacturing firearms is a relatively new offence carrying a maximum punishment of 10 years’ incarceration. But the charge was later downgraded to “attempting” to manufacture firearms, punishable by up to five years, after prosecutors conceded there was no proof Clarke had yet succeeded in assembling the gun parts into a serviceable weapon.

The intention of lawmakers was to keep guns out of gang members’ hands, Benic noted, citing debate in Parliament before the law was passed.

The Head Hunters gang are gathering to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the influential East chapter. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Clarke wasn’t home during the raid despite Auckland having been in the strict Alert Level 4 lockdown at the time after the emergence of the Covid-19 Delta variant. Cellphone polling showed he had somehow absconded to Wellington, court documents state.

The defendant later admitted he crossed a checkpoint hidden in the back of a truck so he could collect debts, which the Crown described today as a “particularly egregious example” of a lockdown breach.

He was arrested in Wellington on September 20, 2021, after two days there. During searches of his vehicle and his mother’s home, where he had been staying, police found two loaded pistols, gang regalia, three mobile phones and 28 grams of methamphetamine.

One of the phones showed text messages from the year earlier - when he was serving a prison sentence for methamphetamine supply - in which he threatened to kill various people for perceived debts or other slights.

In one of them, he threatened to kill a woman and burn down her house.

“Lying little bitch. I’m going to f*** you up real good the next time we meet,” he wrote in another. “I’ll f***ing kill you, you f***ing little bitch.”

But the possession of methamphetamine for supply conviction, punishable by up to life imprisonment, was the lead charge the judge considered today.

She ordered a starting point of four years, noting his convictions in 2012 and 2020 for charges related to methamphetamine manufacturing and supply. She increased the starting point by 18 months for his new firearm charges, another 18 months for the attempt to manufacture 3D guns and nine more months for his threats to kill.

“The language you used was appalling and the people who received these messages would have had reason to be fearful,” she said.

An example of a completed 3D printed FGC-9 semi-automatic pistol.

But from that point she began deducting time for mitigating factors.

She allowed a 20 per cent discount for his guilty pleas, as well as 10 per cent for his background and 10 per cent for his attempts at rehabilitation.

Defence lawyer Devon Kemp had sought larger discounts for each of those matters. He pointed to a recent psychiatric report in which his client was diagnosed with an anti-social personality disorder, which can be linked to all of his offending.

“His distrust of the system and authoritarian figures has caused him ... in the past to not undertake rehabilitative efforts but inspires his offending,” Kemp said, adding that his client has for most of his life been “let down by every single institution in the country that was designed to help him”.

“He behaves with fear and anger towards the system as a result of that.”

Without going into details, Kemp said his client suffered at the hands of his own family growing up, in foster care and in prison, where he was described to the judge as having previously received $15,000 for being “tortured”.

Wayne Clark, a Head Hunters prospect with a long criminal history, is sentenced in the Auckland District Court for attempting to manufacture 3D printed firearms and other offences. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

But during his most recent time at Mt Eden Corrections Facility he has been in a specialist unit designed for rehabilitation and he has taken advantage of it, Kemp said, explaining that his client has taken an anger management course and has worked to address his addiction issues.

The best long-term protection for the community, he argued, would be to allow Clarke to serve a sentence of home detention with conditions that he continues psychiatric care and other rehabilitative programmes.

“He deserved more care and he deserved more rehabilitation,” Kemp said. “That’s what caused ... a desire to rebel in increasingly extraordinary ways.”

Judge Maxwell acknowledged Clarke came from a background of extraordinary disadvantage.

“You have done well since you were admitted to that specialist unit,” she said, adding that reports indicated “you might be starting to view your future differently”.

But home detention isn’t an appropriate option, she said.

Craig Kapitan is an Auckland-based journalist covering courts and justice. He joined the Herald in 2021 and has reported on courts since 2002 in three newsrooms in the US and New Zealand.