Vancouver — A longtime member of the Nanaimo Hells Angels has been sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the extortion of and theft from a former associate.
Robert (Fred) Widdifield was convicted in December of trying to strong-arm his former business partner into handing over cash and a yacht.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robin Baird sentenced the 63-year-old last week and released his reasons Thursday.
The former friend, identified only as J.H. in court, went to police in 2010 after being repeatedly threatened by a junior Nanaimo Hells Angel named Rajinder Sandhu who the judge said was acting for Widdifield.
J.H.’s problems with the bikers stemmed back to an unpaid $62,000 loan he had received in 1993 from a Nanaimo woman who later moved away without providing a forwarding address.
For years, he heard nothing about the debt until Sandhu knocked on his door in early 2010.
Sandhu told J.H. that he would have to repay the loan, as well as a “stupid tax” for his alleged unauthorized use of the Hells Angels name and reputation.
Baird said “Widdifield played the role of instigator and superintendent in a criminal enterprise comprising of himself and three others.”
“The goal of this enterprise was to coerce the complainant by threats, intimidation, and violence into handing over money and property to which they had no right or lawful claim, including a 37-foot Bayliner yacht called Dream Chaser,” Baird said.
“I found, in particular, that these offences were committed at Widdifield’s direction in his capacity as a senior, respected, and feared member of the [Hells Angels] Club. His emissary was a more junior Club member, Rajinder Sandhu.”
Baird said the appropriate sentence for Widdifield's crimes would be up to six years in jail.
But he opted for five years after “taking into account the accused's age, his modest criminal record, and his good behaviour on bail during the four and a half years that it took, for various reasons, for the matter to come to trial.”
Widdifield was also ordered to pay $120,000 restitution to J.H.
