A LONESOME biker who thought a Hells Angels tattoo would help him impress women soon found out that he had made a painful mistake.
The feared motorcycle club took a dim view to their winged Death’s head insignia being etched on a non-member’s arm — and cut it out with an angle grinder.
This was the price of crossing the Hells Angels, a gang that one ex-cop says is becoming an increasingly violent and influential criminal organisation.
Former Det Supt Ken Lawrence spent years investigating the Angels and their rivals.
He said: “The Hells Angels are a nasty bunch, but very clever.
“They present this image of loveable rogue bikers by giving to charities and sending cuddly toys to schools and hospitals.
“But they are into drug trafficking, extortion and debt collecting, to name just a few of their activities.
“They dress up in their full regalia and then go round to people’s homes and threaten to cut off their fingers and kill their children if they don’t pay up.
“And it’s dangerous to cross them, as the guy who had the tattoo hacked off with an angle grinder found out.”
Investigators claim the Hells Angels also have links to drug cartels in South America and Mexico, as well as Irish terror groups like the IRA and UDA.
They cover their tracks by recruiting solicitors and accountants in their ranks to hide their millions in legitimate businesses.
The club also makes up to £1million each year by holding the Bulldog Bash festival complete with stunt shows, races, rock bands and lap dancers.
A Hells Angel from the Windsor chapter spoke to The Sun at the event in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks.
He said: “I know some pretty scary people who do the debt collecting. We went round to scare a businessman who lived near London who owed money.
“We beat him with knuckledusters, stripped him and half drowned him in the bath.
“We also showed him that we had hung his pet dog from a tree in the back garden and told him he’d be next. He paid up in full a few days later.”
Hells Angels Motorcycle Club has become one of the most iconic gangs in the world.
Established in California in 1948, its first European chapter took root in London in 1969 when members were invited over by The Beatles’ George Harrison.
Many of its members now wear badges boasting they are “one percenters” — a reference to a comment that 99 per cent of bikers are law-abiding citizens and the remainder are outlaws.
Their motto also offers a hint to the club’s dark side. It reads: “When we do right, nobody remembers. When we do wrong, nobody forgets.”
There are thought to be at least 250 Hells Angels now operating in the UK.
Some have held supposedly upstanding positions in society. BBC Wales reporter Steve Jones, 51, was sacked in 2010 after being revealed as a Hells Angel spokesman for the Bulldog Bash.
And Tory councillor Jim Mason, 65, a former deputy mayor of Tewksbury, Gloucs, was outed as a member of the rival Outlaws Motorcycle Club in 2011.
Police claim crime deals are made at the Bulldog Bash. The event at Long Marston airfield last month was attended by Angels from Essex, Wolverhampton, Scotland, Canada, Belgium, Italy, Sweden and Irish Nomads.
The member from the Windsor chapter told The Sun: “No one causes trouble here as we are in charge. The police leave us to it and no one messes with us.”
But the festival came to national attention in 2007 when Hells Angel Gerry Tobin was killed by rival gang the Outlaws as he headed home to London.
Members from the South Warwickshire Outlaws chapter pulled alongside Gerry, 35, in a car at 90mph on the M40 and shot him in the head.
Seven men were jailed for life over the murder, which police believe was sanctioned by Outlaw leaders in America.
The two motorcycle clubs have a bitter rivalry that reportedly dates back to the late 1960s when the wife of a Hells Angel was raped by an Outlaw.
The Gerry Tobin hit was said to have happened because the Bulldog Bash is held on Outlaw territory in Warwickshire.
Members from both gangs were jailed in 2009 after a mass brawl involving knuckledusters, hammers and a meat cleaver broke out at Birmingham Airport.
But more rival clubs may soon be riding on the streets of Britain.
Intelligence points to the Bandidos gang, which has strong links to the Mexican drug cartels, starting to gain a foothold here.
EU law enforcement agency Europol warned two years ago that biker gangs from America, Canada and Australia were trying to muscle in on organised crime in Europe and the UK.
Authorities fear a return of the Nordic Biker War, which raged mainly between the Hells Angels and Bandidos in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden in the 1990s.
It left 11 people dead and nearly 100 more injured.
There were murders here too with Ronald Wait, 44, jailed for 15 years for masterminding an attack that left two rivals dead in Battersea, South London, in 1998.
Former cop Ken Lawrence added: “Intelligence points to them stepping up criminal activities, notably drug smuggling, debt collecting and extortion. Their bosses in America see the UK as a lucrative market.”
WWII roots to gig riots
HELLS Angels Motorcycle Club was founded in California in 1948 by the Bishop family.
The name is thought to have been suggested by a friend who served in a fighter plane squadron called Hells Angels in China and Burma during World War Two.
Common nicknames include HA, 81 — after the letters’ positions in the alphabet — and Red and White for the club’s logo colours.
The Rolling Stones hired the Hells Angels as security for their final US tour show in San Francisco, California, in December 1969. The cost was $500 and free beer.
But the show descended into a riot with Jefferson Airplane singer Marty Balin beaten unconscious by Angels and art student Meredith Hunter, 18, stabbed to death.
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