Point England gang fight: Missionary turned gang member gets home detention for road rage assault

Viliami Tonga was sentenced in the High Court at Auckland.

A former Mormon missionary who once lived a “positive and productive life” joined a gang and terrorised an innocent motorist in a road rage incident while on the way to a pre-arranged fight.

Viliami Tonga is one of a number of gang members now facing the consequences of their actions on the day of the Point England gang fight in August last year, during which a man was shot and later died.

Tonga got into trouble in 2016 as a secondary student – he was expelled from school.

After that, he spent what a judge called “a seven-year period of demonstrable good character” learning the building trade, working in construction and even spending two years as a missionary for the Mormon Church.

But then his mother became ill with leukaemia. She died in June last year.

Tonga struggled with his mother’s death. The efforts he had made to keep on the straight and narrow began to unravel.

He started to drink and socialise with the friends from high school who he had been avoiding.

He became a member of Fitus, a gang based in Auckland affiliated with the Rebels Motorcycle Club.

On the day that the Rebels and the Head Hunters arranged to fight at the Taurima Reserve in Point England, Tonga made his way to the Rebels gang pad on Nikau Rd in Otahuhu.

He was a passenger in one of the vehicles that left the gang pad heading for Taurima Reserve – a convoy that became involved in a violent incident on Great South Rd on the way there.

Another driver, identified only as A in Tonga’s High Court sentencing decision, changed lanes, unwittingly merging his vehicle into the gang convoy, enraging the gang members keyed up ahead of the coming confrontation.

They got out of their cars at a red light, surrounding A and demanding that he get out of his vehicle, attacking it when he refused to do so.

“You all accosted A,” Justice Simon Moore told Tonga in the High Court at Auckland.

“You all kicked the door panels of his vehicle. One of your co-defendants smashed A’s front passenger window with his elbow.”

Gun pointed at motorist

Another gang member kicked the driver-side panels of A’s car and while standing by his window, pointed a pistol at A, threatening to shoot him.

The gang members got back into their vehicles when the traffic lights changed and drove off.

A followed them, trying to memorise their registration numbers, but pulled over when another member of the convoy – not Tonga – pulled alongside him, pointed a firearm and told him to “f*** off”.

The convoy continued on towards the confrontation at the reserve.

During that fight, patched Head Hunter Charles Pongi was shot. He died later that day after driving himself to hospital.

Tonga was not charged with any offence in relation to the melee in the reserve. Others are due to face trial next year. However, he did plead guilty to a charge of assaulting A during the road rage incident that preceded it.

One of his co-defendants, Paula Lavemai, received a sentence of a month of home detention after he pleaded guilty to the same charge for the same incident.

Viliami Tonga was a member of a gang affiliated with the Rebels Motorcycle Club. Photo / Supplied

Defendant has residency visa

However, Tonga asked Justice Moore to discharge him without conviction.

He pleaded to be let off partly because a conviction might hinder his eligibility for New Zealand citizenship.

The defendant grew up in Tonga and came to New Zealand 12 years ago. He currently holds a residency visa.

He was also worried about his employment prospects, and what not getting citizenship might mean for his desire to move to eventually Australia.

Justice Moore turned him down, saying a conviction might delay him getting citizenship but would not prevent it.

“Even if granted a discharge without conviction, you would still have to disclose the fact of your offending in applying for citizenship,” Justice Moore said.

“I also agree with the Crown that I should exercise caution and restraint before effectively taking over the function of the Minister of Internal Affairs, whose job it is to assess character-related issues for citizenship.”

The judge also said there was little evidence to suggest a conviction would seriously get in the way of Tonga’s aspirations to rejoin the construction industry.

"Don't let this most recent mistake define you," Justice Simon Moore told Viliami Tonga. Photo / Michael Craig

Justice Moore convicted Tonga and sentenced him to two months of home detention.

Before handing down the sentence, the judge told Tonga that he wanted to make some comments.

“You made some unwise decisions about who you mixed with and you ended up in trouble as a result,” he said.

“You have shown you have the insight to recognise the dangers of that.

“You have a very supportive stepfather and whānau. It is obvious you are a young man with considerable promise.

“You have goals and aspirations which you are on track to realising.

“Don’t let this most recent mistake define you, because it is not who you are. You are better than that.”

Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay. His writing in the crime and justice sphere is informed by four years of front-line experience as a probation officer.