As police deliver their closing address in the trial of the man who allegedly leads the Head Hunters, a prosecutor says there is no way Wayne Doyle could have funded five properties without the proceeds of crime. George Block reports.
Those who profit from the proceeds of crime should be forced to pay each and every dollar of ill-gotten gains back to New Zealand society, prosecutor Mark Harborow says.
That is the essence of the long-running police bid to force the man they allege is president of the Head Hunters to forfeit five properties they claim are tainted with the profits of organised crime.
Six years on from the police raid on the Ellerslie base of the Head Hunters East chapter, Wayne Doyle’s civil trial is drawing to an end, with Harborow closing the Police Commissioner’s case on Thursday.
Next week, Ron Mansfield, KC, is delivering his closing for Doyle’s case in the judge-alone trial before Justice Peter Andrew in the High Court at Auckland.
Police are seeking profit forfeiture orders totalling more than $15 million against Doyle.
Under the law, police do not need a conviction.
They only need to show someone profited from crime under the lower standard of proof used in civil cases - “on the balance of probabilities” - rather than the “beyond reasonable doubt” standard in criminal trials.
They are targeting five properties linked to the pensioner and alleged gang boss, including the sprawling pad and gym at 232 Marua Rd, Ellerslie.
Other properties include his home in East Auckland and a longstanding Doyle family property in central Auckland.
Doyle, 68, denies he is the president of the Head Hunters.
Mansfield has argued he had other sources of legitimate income beyond the benefits police say were insufficient to fund the five properties.
Doyle has not been charged with or convicted of any offence since he was last released from prison more than two decades ago.
Since his release in 2001 he had not been involved in any criminal offending, because to do so would have led to his recall to prison under the terms of his life parole, Mansfield said.
The Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act, passed in 2009, was designed to supplant earlier legislation police found was unable to deal with people involved in crime who had succeeded in distancing themselves from offending.
It only requires police to prove an asset was partially tainted with the proceeds of crime to reach the threshold required to forfeit the entire asset, such as if drug money was used to help pay the mortgage on a property.
In his closing address, Harborow said the act heralded a new approach.
Doyle was not involved in a criminal sense in the methamphetamine dealing or standovers - dubbed “taxings” - by which members of the Head Hunters made money, he said.
But he nonetheless derived benefit from the offending via the 20 per cent koha members of the Head Hunters are required to pay to the club, police argue.
“We don’t care, says Parliament, whether he undertook or was involved in the crime,” Harborow said.
“What matters is the derivation of the benefit.
“If you’ve benefited from crime to say $12m you owe New Zealand society a $12m debt.”
The act says a person has unlawfully benefited from crime if they knowingly, directly or indirectly, derive a benefit from criminal activity.
“Has the dirty money gone into the asset? That’s the conceptual basis,” the prosecutor said.
Harborow said the fact Doyle had managed to amass an interest in five properties across Auckland while spending much of his life either in prison or receiving benefits showed he was reaping the rewards of the activities of the Head Hunters.
“It’s extraordinary, we say, that Mr Doyle has managed to fund five pieces of real estate in Auckland while spending a large part of his life in prison and also receiving only benefits.”
Police have cited intercepted communications from historic drug investigations they say show Doyle having knowledge of how Head Hunters members were earning their money and in one case purporting to show him demanding a cut from the proceeds.
While he denies he is the boss, Doyle acknowledges he is a senior and longstanding member of the Head Hunters.
During about three days in the witness box he admitted that after police swooped on his properties in 2017 donations were forthcoming to help with his legal fees.
But he said donors were required to pay out of their bank accounts rather than with cash to ensure the money was from legitimate sources.
“His ability to command money from Head Hunters for his legal retainers is entirely consistent with our case, that he sits at the apex and is in receipt of large amounts of funds,” Harborow said.
Earlier in the trial, Harborow cross-examined Doyle on one of those payments, sent from Hong Kong to his former lawyer’s trust account.
Police traced the $72,000 back to a woman who lives in Auckland and whose partner is a convicted drug dealer, sentenced to prison for importing just shy of 1kg of methamphetamine. As a result, Harborow said, this was tainted money.
Her partner has a company linked to a Marua Rd property a couple of minutes walk up the road from the Head Hunters East pad, of which the prosecution says Doyle is the majority owner via a complex series of trusts.
Under cross-examination, Doyle said he had never met the couple, and it was just a bad coincidence they were also connected to Marua Rd.
A point of contention at the trial was the description of Doyle as the president of the gang.
Detective Inspector Kevin McNaughton, who held the Head Hunters portfolio and later ran the police Motorcycle Gang Unit, said the Head Hunters East chapter lacked the formalised rank structure of other gangs like the Hells Angels, and did not use the title president.
But everyone knew Doyle, nicknamed “chief”, was in charge, McNaughton said.
“He is the Head Hunters,” he said.
“I’ve never heard anyone say that he is not in charge.
“He’s the chief. The boss. WD.”
Harborow said that when Doyle was released from prison one of the conditions of his life parole imposed was not to serve as president of the Head Hunters.
“Regardless of what you call him, he is someone who sits at the apex,” Harborow said.
Every month, Doyle meets with a probation officer as part of his life parole.
Justice Andrew asked Harborow what the police’s response was to the fact Doyle had not been recalled to prison for breaching his parole conditions.
Harborow said a recall would require reasonable grounds to believe Doyle had committed an offence punishable by prison.
But Section 7 of the Criminal Proceeds Recovery Act was not about the involvement or even the commissioning of crimes, he said.
Instead, Harborow said it was about the derivation of proceeds from others.
“He’s quite deliberately sat back as a senior and just let the juniors go out and do the offending and reap the reward.”
The trial continues.
Read more of the Herald’s full, exclusive coverage of the Doyle trial:
George Block is an Auckland-based reporter with a focus on police, the courts, prisons and defence. He joined the Herald in 2022 and has previously worked at Stuff in Auckland and the Otago Daily Times in Dunedin.
The victim was uninjured and ran for help to a nearby house to phone police.