Failed bikie prosecution costs police
A magistrate has accused police of unnecessarily pursuing bikie Vincenzo Focarelli over a pub brawl and ordered police to pay his legal costs.
Focarelli and three others were charged with aggravated affray over a notorious brawl at the Highway Inn last November, but police dropped the charges last month.
Two of the other men accused over the brawl were each awarded $14,000 in legal costs, but Focarelli had asked magistrate Simon Smart for more - about $23,000.
The magistrate settled on $15,600, and said what set Focarelli apart from his co-accused is that in his view, ‘the proceedings were unnecessarily continued’.
