A former Hell's Angel who
featured in a social media video with rugby league player Jarryd
Hayne has been jailed with another ex-bikie for bashing and
extorting two other men involved in a drug deal.
Christopher Bloomfield was on
Friday sentenced to four years and three months jail, to be
suspended after 11 months, while co-accused Rhys Mirkin was
given three years and nine months behind bars, suspended after
nine months.
Bloomfield made national
headlines in 2016 when he appeared in a controversial Snapchat
video with Jarryd Hayne waving a wad of cash and saying "Sweet.
Haynesy just gave me five grand."
Hayne later denied knowing who
Bloomfield but was warned against associating with criminals by
the NRL, which cleared him of wrongdoing.
Prosecutors are unsure how much
methamphetamine Bloomfield and Mirkin supplied but estimate it
was an ounce, leaving their victims with a $16,000 debt after
the deal in late 2013.
Over the next six months, they
pursued the man Mirkin had sold the drugs to, with Bloomfield
acting as an enforcer trying to recoup the debt, Brisbane
Supreme Court heard.
Bloomfield, a former Gold Coast
Titans junior, bashed the man in a park, punching him several
times before pulling a knife and cutting his victim's hand.
"You got carried away while
trying to enforce the drug debt for Mirkin," Justice Debra
Mullins said.
When the man the drugs were sold
to didn't pay, Bloomfield turned on another man who had
introduced them and said the debt was now his responsibility.
One way Bloomfield tried to
encourage repayment was by taking the second man's BMW
convertible and using it for four weeks.
He gave it back to the man so he
could have it serviced but then reclaimed it for another two
weeks, Justice Mullins said.
Bloomfield's next move was to
text the man in January 2014, warning him off contacting police
and saying that he knew where his family lived.
"You said that you would shoot
every single one of them until you found him," Justice Mullins
said.
Months later, Bloomfield went to
the man's home and punched him in the mouth.
Both Bloomfield and Mirkin nodded
as Justice Mullins said they now regretted their previous
associations and the period of life during which they offended.