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Ex-Hells Angel bikie Graham Young has sentence doubled for blackmail, trafficking offences

By Rebecca Opie
A South Australian former bikie jailed for drug trafficking, blackmail and trying to steal security footage of a robbery has had his sentence more than doubled after an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Former Hells Angels bikie Graham Daniel Young, from Mount Gambier, was sentenced to three years in jail with a non-parole period of 18 months in November last year after pleading guilty to blackmail, four counts of drug trafficking and attempting to obstruct the course of justice.

The court previously heard police found Young in possession of drugs and found cocaine, methamphetamine and ecstasy stored at his father's house on his behalf.

It also heard Young had tried to retrieve CCTV footage of the robbery before police could get to it and that he had threatened a man who he claimed made a crude remark to his girlfriend at the time, leading the man to pay him $2,000.

On Thursday, the Court of Criminal Appeal imposed a new sentence of seven years, one month and five weeks with a non-parole period of four years.

In his judgment, Chief Justice Chris Kourakis said Young was a "regular and substantial trader" in drugs and the original sentence for trafficking offences was "manifestly inadequate".

"A starting point of less than five years failed to properly reflect the seriousness of the respondent's commercial dealing," he said.

"The starting point of three years selected by the judge has resulted in a sentence which is an egregious failure to maintain an adequate standard of punishment for crimes of this kind."

Both the sentence and the non-parole period were backdated to December 2014