"To be honest with you,” South Sudanese community leader Richard Deng tells the ABC, “there are no gangs in Victoria.”

He prefers an alternative description:

Mr Deng said a number of kids in his area had become disengaged with the community and fallen in with "ringleaders" who pushed them into crime …

"There are just a group of young kids who are going together in a group and they are terrorising people because they are going in a group."