QLD Government Sells Drag racers

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State sells off drag racers
Article from: The Courier-Mail



Mark Solomons

January 16, 2010 12:00am

A COLLECTION of cars and motorbikes so powerful even their owner says they're dangerous is about to be put up for public sale by the State Government.

None is registered and some are up to 10 times more powerful than ordinary streets cars. All run on pure alcohol fuel.

The machines are being held as part of a $10 million proceeds of crime civil case – but they will be released to the general public because the Queensland Government doesn't have a place to keep them.

They are owned by former drag racing champion Brett Stevens and were seized last February when Stevens, 45, was arrested as part of Operation Golf Brazen.

The year-long Queensland police, Crime and Misconduct Commission and Australian Crime Commission campaign targeted drug crime and led to 77 arrests and 220 charges.

Stevens was charged with drug manufacturing and trafficking offences and a committal hearing in Brisbane Magistrates Court is set for Tuesday.

The cars look like production models – five are described as Ford Falcons – but produce up to 3000 horsepower.

The Public Trustee will now sell them and hold the money until the state's civil case against Stevens is resolved.

The body argued in court documents last year that there was no facility in southeast Queensland to properly store the vehicles and there was a risk that they would deteriorate in value.

Stevens himself did not oppose an application for their sale although he warned in an affidavit that it would be dangerous to sell them without explaining to a buyer how to operate them.

Last month Justice Byrne ordered the Public Trustee to sell the five cars, a "Burnout Ute", four bikes and one body shell, first removing all sponsor logos and other advertising.

Drag racing veteran Victor Bray said Stevens's cars were "top class" and the state should not have difficulty finding buyers.

"These cars are all still state of the art," he said.

Stevens has been advertising the cars for sale for several months on his website, at $250,000 each. Bray said this was "at the top of the market", noting that a brand new drag car could be bought in the US for about $215,000.

A spokesman for the Public Trustee said that it could not comment as the matter was before the courts. It usually sells the goods it seizes at auction.

The state has also frozen other assets owned by Stevens including several properties, shares in his racing, transport and employment companies and a fleet of trucks, utes and cars.

Under Queensland's tough proceeds of crime laws, the state can restrain property if there is reasonable suspicion of serious crime-related activity, even if there is no conviction. The onus is on the owner to show how the money used to buy it was obtained.

To back its civil claim, the state has alleged in the Supreme Court, based on wiretap and surveillance evidence and informants' testimony, that Stevens was involved in manufacturing and supplying drugs including cocaine, ecstasy and methylamphetamine.

It alleges he had access to at least one pill press between September 2007 and October 2008 and told a co-conspirator "that he could sell 20,000 pills per week and was getting between $8 and $9 per pill".

Stevens did not respond to calls seeking comment.