Man’s ‘innocent’ heirloom lands him in court
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A Stanthorpe man's seemingly innocent inheritance of an antique rifle silencer ended up landing him in court on multiple firearm charges.
Police searched Scott Andrew Mann's Broadwater home on January 22 last year, where they found a live 0.22 ammunition round in the same safe as his rifle.
The Stanthorpe Magistrates Court heard the magazine being left inside the same safe breached gun laws, even though the weapon itself wasn't loaded.
The 52-year-old was also busted storing an unlicensed rifle silencer in the same safe, which police prosecutor Steve de Lissa said was a further violation of the man's gun permit.
Defence lawyer Michael Catanzaro told the court his client was urgently called away while using the rifle to remove feral pests from his farm, so hastily unloaded the gun and put both items in the one safe.
Mr Cantazaro said Mann believed storing the potentially 70-year-old silencer a an antique wouldn't be a problem as it couldn't be used with any of his own weapons.
Alongside his work as a farmer and real estate agent, Mr Cantazaro said the man was also heavily involved with the area's RFS brigade.
Magistrate Julian Noud acknowledged the Stanthorpe man's actions posed "no risk to the public or any individuals", along with his lack of criminal history and remorse.
Mann pleaded guilty to unlawfully possessing a Category R weapon and failing to securely store small arms ammunition.
He was fined $350 and no conviction was recorded.
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