JAILED LAWN BOWLER ROLLS OUT APPEAL
A CHAMPION lawn bowler jailed over a Geelong shootout with a rival has launched a bid to reduce his prison term, arguing the judge was unfairly harsh on him.
Travis Kelly took his fight to the Court of Appeal yesterday to seek a reduction in his overall sentence and non-parole period.
The 32-year-old was sentenced at the County Court last November to a maximum jail term of five years, with the judge ordering he serve three years before being eligible for parole.
Kelly had pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an incident in Bell Park on March 7 last year, when he traded gunshots with a rival, Kain Smiljanic.
The brazen incident was sparked when Smiljanic and an unknown man committed a drive-by shooting at Kelly’s home on Woodvale Court about 9.50am.
One of the bullets passed through a bedroom window while Kelly and his then-partner were inside.
Moments later, Kelly armed himself with a handgun and ran onto the street, firing a single shot in the direction of the car as it drove away.
The one-time national lawn bowls champion has always maintained that he fired above the vehicle as a warning shot.
In documents lodged with the Court of Appeal, lawyers for Kelly argued his sentence and non-parole period were manifestly excessive.
They also claimed that the sentencing judge, Felicity Hampel, had made an error by finding that the offending was aggravated by the firearm being kept loaded while in the house where Kelly lived with a young child.
Defence counsel Christopher Wareham said there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the gun was loaded when Kelly retrieved it, adding that the issue was not raised prior to sentencing.
“To make such a finding in such circumstances was a denial of procedural fairness,” he said.
Mr Wareham said it was accepted that firing a gun in public was dangerous and could cause death or serious injury.
But he argued that the sentences were disproportionate given Kelly’s early guilty plea and lack of prior convictions for firearm offences.
A panel of judges reserved their decision.