Gerry Tobin, 35, was shot in the neck as he drove home from a British motorcycle festival in August 2007. (Warr's Harley-Davidson Motorcycles/PA/Associated Press)

A Canadian biker, who was a member of the Hells Angels, appears to have been killed as a result of a gang rivalry, a British court heard Monday.

Gerry Tobin, 35, was riding from a Hells Angels-sponsored festival in a motorcycle convoy on the M40 motorway, about 200 kilometres north of London, when he was shot in the back of the neck in August 2007.

The murder trial began in the Birmingham Crown Court on Monday.

Tobin was gunned down by a revolver shot that was fired from a vehicle that was travelling at about 144 kilometres per hour, the court heard.

The car allegedly used during the shooting was later found burnt-out farther down the highway.

"The incident was, you may come to think, thoroughly ruthless, executed with great skill, precision and great timing and ultimately the product of a great deal of planning and attention to detail," Crown attorney Timothy Raggatt said, according to the Birmingham Mail.

Tobin was a senior member of a London-based chapter of the Hells Angels but was a hardworking man with no criminal record, the court heard, according to BBC News.

In his opening statement, Raggatt told the court the death may have been a result of a gang rivalry between the Hells Angels and the Outlaws.

The seven men allegedly connected to Tobin's death make up the entire membership of the South Warwickshire chapter of the Outlaws, the court heard.

There may have been a dispute about whether the festival Tobin was attending was occurring in Outlaw territory, Raggatt told the court.

There is no evidence that any of the man charged in the shooting knew Tobin, Raggatt said.

Tobin was not "targeted for who he was but because of what he was," Raggatt said, according to the Birmingham Mail.

Six of the men have pleaded not guilty to firearms and murder charges. They are:

• Malcolm Bull, 53.
• Ian Cameron, 46.
• Dane Garside, 42.
• Karl Garside, 45.
• Dean Taylor, 47.
• Simon Turner, 41.

A seventh man, Sean Creighton, pleaded guilty to the shooting death of Tobin as well as firearms charges.

Tobin, who was born in London, immigrated to Canada at the age of two and settled with his family in Calgary.

He returned to Britain about 10 years ago and lived in Mottingham, southwest of London, where he worked as a mechanic at a Harley-Davidson dealership.

The trial is ongoing.