Court rules Hell’s Angels sites can be seized and sold

B.C.’s attorney general has been given legal approval to seize three clubhouses owned by the Hells Angels including one on Ellis Street in Kelowna and others in Vancouver and Nanaimo.

The B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled the clubhouses used by the outlaw motorcycle club are considered “instruments of unlawful activity” and are are subject to forfeiture.

“Having considered the evidence of unlawful activity together with the findings reviewed above concerning both the Hells Angels in general and the clubhouses in particular, we are satisfied that the inference clearly arises that members’ engagement in unlawful activities was facilitated through access to information gathered surreptitiously at the clubhouses, and protection from surveillance and detection by law enforcement offered by the clubhouses. Indeed, the most logical and reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence is that the clubhouses were designed and outfitted at least in part for that very purpose. We are further satisfied that such use of the clubhouses was likely to continue. There was no evidence of any change in the nature of the Hells Angels, or to the clubhouses, that would suggest otherwise.” (Ruling by Justices Newbury, Grauer and Marchand)

The court overturned a B.C. Supreme Court decision from 2020 that allowed the biker gang to keep its clubhouses, after ruling part of the Civil Forfeiture Act relating to future crimes was unconstitutional.

Click here to read the entire ruling.