But Clovis Chikonga, 24, may not spend any extra time in jail. He is serving a two-year sentence for contempt of court after refusing to co...
But Clovis Chikonga, 24, may not spend any extra time in jail.
He is serving a two-year sentence for contempt of court after refusing to co-operate with the Corruption and Crime Commission investigation into a bloody brawl with rival gang the Coffin Cheaters.
District Court Chief Judge Peter Martino today said he had no power to make Chikonga's 12-month sentence cumulative on top of his contempt sentence. He said the contempt sentence was not a fixed term and Chikonga could be discharged at any time if he "purged himself of the contempt."
Chikonga pleaded guilty to threatening to harm the crowd controller and going armed to cause fear after he was told to leave the Doll House club in North Perth in the early hours of September 12, 2009.
The bikie failed to show for a scheduled three-day trial last November, prompting an arrest warrant to be issued, but he pleaded guilty over the incident after a threat to kill charge was downgraded to threat to harm.
Chikonga's defence lawyer Alana Padmanabham said her client was drunk and there "was no capacity to make good on those threats."
She said Chikonga had endured a difficult upbringing, coming to Australia as a young refugee and witnessing domestic violence between his parents, including his father's attempted murder of his mother. Ms Padmanabham said it was "no surprise" that Chikonga began offending from a young age.
State prosecutor Marina Greenshields said these offences were at the serious end of the scale and told the court that Chikonga was "fast acquiring a serious criminal record", which included convictions for two counts of grievous bodily harm and one count of unlawful wounding - all which involved stabbings with knives.
Chief Judge Martino said the crowd controllers were just trying to do their jobs when they asked Chikonga to leave after he started playing with a DJ console and using his mobile phone in an area he was not allowed to. He said he waved around a flick knife and on several occasions threatened to harm the crowd controller, using the words: "I'll slit your throat."
Chief Judge Martino warned Chikonga he had a choice to make - to continue down his current path and risk further jail time or stop associating with "people who don't comply with the law" and start living a law-abiding life.
He sentenced Chikonga to 12 months in jail for the threat to harm charge and added an eight-month concurrent sentence for the going armed to cause fear charge.
Chikonga was one of five Finks bikies - along with Stephen John Wallace, Tristan Allbeury, Stephen Silvestro and Troy Smith - to be given two-year prison sentences by Supreme Court Chief Justice Wayne Martin for refusing to co-operate with the CCC when they were summonsed to answer questions about the violent brawl with the Coffin Cheaters at the Kwinana Motorplex last October.
Contempt cases against Coffin Cheaters' Benjamin David Ortin and David Jon Reid, who were accused of lying to the watchdog about the brawl with the Finks, were dropped last week.
