The Chief Justice of Tasmania’s Supreme Court has sentenced a man to four weeks in jail for storing an illegal firearm with a homemade silencer.
Jayke Sutton pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited firearm without the appropriate category licence after police found the 22. calibre Stirling bolt action repeating rifle during a search of his parents’ home on November 30 last year.
Chief Justice Alan Blow said Sutton did not have a firearms licence and even if he did, it is illegal to have a firearm with a silencer unless authorised by the Commissioner of Police.
“This is a serious charge. Heaven only knows what the intended use of this weapon was, but I do not think anybody was going to go out and shoot rabbits,” he said.
“I accept that you were storing this for someone who wanted it stored who gave you money in return for storing it.”
The Chief Justice noted Sutton has a number of prior convictions but none as serious as this and no previous firearms convictions.
“Your counsel told me that as a result of drug use and drug addiction, you were involved with the wrong crowd of people,” he said.
“Obviously you were. You met someone who wanted to pay you to store a rifle with a silencer on it.”
The Chief Justice sentenced Sutton to four weeks in jail, backdated to May 17 and ordered the forfeiture of the firearm and silencer to the state.
