THREE Ballarat-based members of the Finks outlaw motorcycle club received fines for their part in a late-night raid of a popular local nightclub.
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Ballarat Finks sergeant-at-arms Anthony Martelli, 38, club treasurer Chad Salvemini, 36, and Graham Hudgson, a 34-year-old Finks nominee, were part of a fifteen-strong bikie group that stormed Haida Bar on June 7.
All three pleaded guilty to affray at Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday after the Crown dropped aggravated burglary and recklessly cause injury charges.
Salvemini, who also pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded firearm and steroids - which were not used during the raid - received a four-month suspended jail term.
Magistrate Mary Robertson imposed a two-month suspended prison sentence on Hudgson after he pleaded guilty to further charges of possess prohibited weapon without excuse and possess an imitation firearm following a police raid on his Wendouree home on June 9.
Interstate and local Finks members gathered at the clubhouse on June 6 for a "club action", which Crown Prosecutor Kieran Gilligan told the court was retaliatory after Salvemini was told to steer clear of the now-defunct bar by management.
The court heard one employee was punched and trampled on at the stairs of the Camp Street nightclub by Finks members, while another three victims, one of whom was disc-jockeying for a number of young patrons, were assaulted.
The court heard the five-minute attack all but ended Ballarat's Finks chapter, with Echo Taskforce detectives shutting down the Finks clubhouse and local members "scattered like autumn leaves in the wind", according to Martelli's defence barrister Philip Dunn QC.
Lawyers for all three men told the court each member had ended their involvement with outlaw motorcycle club after the terrifying attack and Mr Dunn said no Finks members remained in Ballarat.
In fining the men $6000 each, Magistrate Robertson said she placed the "unpleasant" attack on the less-serious end of the affray spectrum.
She said the lack of injuries, threats or property damage and the fact she had recently sentenced four co-accused's to fines ranging from $1000-$5000 meant a financial imposition was just.
Ms Robertson said defence counsels' explanation the men joined the club to seek an identity, was an "interesting way of looking at it".