Sep 03, 2008 - 04:09 PM

By Jeff Mitchell

OSHAWA -- A once seemingly indelible stamp of the presence of the Hells Angels in Oshawa is now the property of the Province.

The infamous Angels clubhouse, a heavily fortified structure on Ortono Avenue in the Wilson Road-Bloor Street neighbourhood, was ordered forfeited to the Crown after a brief hearing Tuesday.

Superior Court Justice Donald Ferguson made the order with the consent of the defendants, who include two high-ranking Angels currently facing accusations of plotting to murder an underworld rival.

The property was seized under the Civil Remedies Act, which allows the Province to apply for forfeiture of property linked to criminal enterprises.

A resolution in the matter comes almost exactly two years since the property -- 487 Ortono -- was frozen by the courts as the Crown announced its intention to seek forfeiture. The clubhouse was raided as part of Project Tandem, a sweeping police strike that saw more than two dozen Angels and associates busted on a variety of charges, most of them related to drugs and weapons.

Arrested in the sweep were Mark Stephenson and Remond Akleh, respectively the president and former president of the Angels’ Oshawa chapter, on charges of conspiring to murder a rival. Their trial is scheduled to begin in Superior Court this fall.

Read the court order:  Click on Biker clubhouse court order under related media

Mr. Akleh, Mr. Stephenson and a third Angels member, David Wilgosz, were identified by the province as the owners on title of 487 Ortono and named in the action launched under the Civil Remedies Act. Court proceedings on the matter have occurred intermittently over the past two years.

In documents on file at the Whitby courthouse the Crown alleges the property was the meeting place of members of a known criminal organization, and that for years the Angels had sold liquor at a bar inside the compound without a licence, effectively operating a booze can.
     What happens next is unclear. Representatives of the City of Oshawa and Durham Regional Police said they’re awaiting an official announcement from the provincial Attorney General on what might happen with the property now that the court process is concluded.

Calls to the ministry Tuesday were not returned.

“We initiated (the Civil Remedies motion) based on the legislation,” said police spokesman Dave Selby. “Their laws opened the door to initiate the paperwork.”

Also reserving comment was James Anderson, a spokesman in Oshawa Mayor John Gray’s office. The mayor is on record as saying he wants the rambling red and white building razed and replaced, preferably with a single family dwelling that would blend with the residential neighbourhood.
    In one other instance involving a property seized under the Act, a home in west Oshawa that had been used for a marijuana grow op was refurbished and put up for sale.

Francesca MacKenzie, who has lived with husband Bradley next door to the Ortono clubhouse for more than 20 years, expressed ambivalence over the ruling.

While having the clubhouse gone might be a boon to the value of their property, Ms. MacKenzie said she’s leery of legislation that allows government to seize property from private citizens.

And like others on Ortono, a short cul-de-sac lined with homes in the shadow of Hwy. 401, the MacKenzies say they never worried about confrontations with their notorious neighbours.

“They were always really nice to us,” Ms. MacKenzie said.

A common sentiment on Ortono was that it wasn’t the Angels that were an irritant so much as the attention they attracted from police. Cops constantly conducted surveillance on the clubhouse, monitoring the comings and goings of visitors, and people with no ties to the club would often get caught up in those efforts, Mr. MacKenzie said.

He recalls one night being followed to work by the police helicopter, and said he was pulled over on several occasions while merely coming to and going from his home.

Since the Angels were ousted from their digs in the fall of 2006 there are still curiosity seekers looking to get close to the property, but police presence has tailed off, he said.

The MacKenzies agree with the stance taken a couple of years ago by Mayor Gray. They want the clubhouse, the Hells Angels’ ungainly physical legacy in Oshawa, gone.

“I think it has to be levelled,” Mr. MacKenzie said.