A mechanic who was murdered on the M40 as he rode home at 90mph from a biker festival last summer was shot for being in the "wrong" motorcycle gang, a court heard today.

Gerry Tobin, a member of the Hells Angels, was killed by a single bullet to the head as he rode his Harley-Davidson home after the Bulldog Bash in Warwickshire. Birmingham Crown Court was told today that the men responsible for his murder had no personal animosity for Mr Tobin and had never met him.

Timothy Raggatt QC, prosecuting, said that the shooting was carried out because the rival Outlaws motorcycle gang felt Mr Tobin was riding through their territory.

“This wasn’t a case of a man being killed for any personal motive or any personal reason,” 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.

“It was almost a military-style operation and had at its heart the plain intention to kill.”

Seven men have been charged with the murder. Sean Creighton, 44, from Coventry, pleaded guilty to murder and firearms charges last week and will be sentenced at the conclusion of the six-week trial of six other defendants.

Simon Turner, 41, from Nuneaton, and Malcolm Bull, 53, from Milton Keynes, are on trial alongside four men from Coventry - Karl Garside, 45, his brother Dane Garside, 42, Dean Taylor, 47, and 46-year-old Ian Cameron.

Turner and Dane Garside also deny a further charge of possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Mr Tobin, a 35-year-old Canadian who lived with his girlfriend in Mottingham, South East London, was killed on August 12, 2007 after he had driven 30 miles towards home from the Bulldog Bash.

A car raced out from a lay-by and tracked him down, passing two Polish bikers who were travelling with Mr Tobin. Police believe that a passenger in that car fired the fatal shot. The car was found burnt out on the same day.

The court heard today that at the heart of the case was gang rivalry between the Hells Angels and the Outlaws.

Mr Raggatt said Mr Tobin, was a “fully patched” and senior Hells Angel in a London-based chapter of the group, but insisted that he was a law-abiding citizen.

The QC told jurors: “He was a complete stranger to each and every one of the men in the dock. There is not a scrap of evidence that any of them had ever met him.

“That said, of course, he was undoubtedly targeted, selected and, some would say, executed.”

The Crown alleges that the six defendants on trial and Mr Creighton constituted the entire membership of the South Warwickshire chapter of the Outlaws, which had a “club house” at a motorcycle supply shop in Coventry.

“The evidence may show us that Long Marston - the site of the Bulldog Bash - is in a part of the country that the Outlaws regard as theirs... part of their patch,” Mr Raggatt said.

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