THOSE who keep shortened firearms will get little sympathy from the courts, Orange's magistrate has warned.
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Magistrate David Day sent Molong man Michael Liam Cotter to jail for 18 months on Monday for possessing four unregistered guns, plus ammunition, without a permit.
Particularly drawing Mr Day's attention was a sawn-off double-barrelled shotgun, located in a duffle bag in Cotter's bedroom during a search on March 7.
Handing down a nine-month parole period, Mr Day said shortened firearms were intended for one purpose: to kill and maim.
"It's to shoot people, it's a concealable weapon," he said.
"If anyone tries to tell me they use it for [hunting] they will get short shrift from me."
The 19-year-old from Gidley Street faced Orange Local Court via audio-visual link charged with possessing a shortened firearm and a stolen firearm, two counts of possessing unregistered firearms, failing to keep the guns secured, possessing ammunition without a licence, cultivating a prohibited plant and two counts each of driving unlicensed, unregistered, uninsured and without a helmet.
If anyone tries to tell me they use it for [hunting] they will get short shrift from me.
- Magistrate David Day
Police said Cotter first came to their attention just before 5pm on February 23 when officers spotted him riding the Yamaha along Packham Drive, Manildra without a helmet and they discovered the motorcycle had never been registered and Cotter had never been licensed.
Police then visited Cotter's Peabody Road home on February 28 to deliver a court attendance notice before spotting Cotter riding towards them on the same motorcycle and when they visited the property again on March 7 to serve the second notice, they spotted four cannabis plants outside his home.
Returning later in the day with a search warrant, police seized the plants.
They found a .22 calibre rifle in a nearby shed, which had been stolen from a Yeoval property seven years ago, 70 rounds of ammunition inside the kitchenette and a sawn-off shotgun, a single-barrelled shotgun and a .22 calibre rifle inside a duffle bag in the bedroom.
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Cotter was arrested on March 12 and admitted he planted the cannabis three months prior and regularly watered and fertilised it.
He told police he found the stolen gun on Peabody Road and attempts to contact the owner in Cudal had failed, while the remaining three were given to him and he was told they belonged to his grandfather.
Solicitor Clive Hill said his client would seek "a new circle of friends" and he had also struggled with drugs.
Cotter was jailed for three of the firearms offences and given community corrections orders of up to two years for the remainder, plus six-month disqualifications for the traffic offences.
Magistrate David Day said Cotter should have handed the illegal weapons into the police and his young age was the only reason he would not aggregate the jail sentences.
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