Two members of a notorious biker gang were found guilty yesterday of murdering a Hell’s Angel who was shot dead for being on their “turf”.

Gerry Tobin was returning from the Bulldog Bash bikers’ festival in August last year when he was shot as he travelled along the M40 on his Harley-Davidson.

He was targeted by rivals from the Outlaws motorcycle gang simply because he was a “fully patched” Hell’s Angel, a member who had undergone the initiation ceremony, his murder trial was told.

Dane Garside, 42, and Simon Turner, 41, were also convicted at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Garside, a lorry driver from Coventry, admitted that he was driving the Rover car from which Mr Tobin was shot, but denied any role in the killing. Turner, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said that he was at a workshop in Coventry at the time of the killing. He was also convicted of possessing two shotguns, which were found after the murder.

Sean Creighton, 44, had pleaded guilty to murder before the start of the eight-week trial. The jury was told that Creighton, from Coventry, also admitted two firearms charges.

Mr Tobin, 35, a Canadian who lived in Mottingham, southeast London, was killed by a single shot to the head. He had driven 30 miles towards home from the Bulldog Bash at Long Marston, near Stratford-upon-Avon.

In the days leading up to the festival, the South Warwickshire “chapter” of the Outlaws, which held meetings at a motorcycle supply shop in Coventry, was seen on closed-circuit television driving around the Stratford area on scouting missions, the jury was told.

After leaving the festival Mr Tobin joined the M40 and was then followed by a car that had been waiting for a “fully patched” Hell’s Angel to come along, the court was told.

The green Rover carrying Garside, Turner and Creighton reached 90mph before pulling alongside Mr Tobin. Two guns were then fired from the car. One bullet struck Mr Tobin in the back of the head and the other hit a mudguard on the bike, the court was told. Mr Tobin was killed instantly and his bike careered off the motorway and into a field.

It is alleged that the remainder of the Outlaws chapter were waiting as back-up at a junction farther down the motorway but were told to stand down after Mr Tobin was murdered.

The prosecution has claimed that seven men were involved in the planning of the murder and each played a part on the day by communicating information between one another.

During the trial the court was told how gang rivalry between the Hell’s Angels and the Outlaws was at the heart of the case, but Mr Tobin had not been a specific target.

Timothy Raggatt, QC, said that Mr Tobin was targeted simply for being a “fully patched” Hell’s Angel who was riding through what the Outlaws believed to be their territory.

Mr Raggatt told the jury: “This was a man who was targeted not because of who he was, but because of what he was. In one sense, Gerry Tobin was a random victim.

“That said, of course, he was undoubtedly targeted, selected and, some would say, executed. It was almost a military-style operation and had at its heart the plain intention to kill.”

About 1,500 motorcycle fans from across Europe had attended Mr Tobin’s funeral in East London. Bikers had gathered at a Hell’s Angels clubhouse before forming a huge funeral cortège that snaked through the streets in September last year.

Mourners dressed in leathers and the Hell’s Angel patch on the back of their jackets showed how far they had come, some of them travelling from Canada, Croatia and Sweden.

Mr Tobin was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and emigrated to Canada with his family when he was 2.

He returned to the UK about 11 years ago and found work as a mechanic at a Harley-Davidson dealership, alongside his fiancée, Rebecca Smith, 26.

The jury will continue to consider its verdicts on four other men today.

Malcolm Bull, 53, Karl Garside, 45, Dean Taylor, 47, and Ian Cameron, 46, all deny murdering Mr Tobin.

Mr Justice Treacy gave a majority direction to the jury yesterday, which allows members to return verdicts where at least ten of them are in agreement.

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