Not guilty plea in gun case

A FORMER long-time gun dealer sold hundreds of firearms without a licence over a six-year period, a Hobart court has heard.

In the Supreme Court in Hobart before Acting Justice Pierre Slicer, Stuart Norton Woods pleaded not guilty to one count of dealing with firearms while not the holder of a firearm dealers licence.

Crown prosecutor Tony Jacobs told the court that from April 2009 to April 2015, Mr Woods had sold firearms from his New Town property and at various gun shows.

He said police found Mr Woods allegedly had a large number of firearms on display for sale at the Hobart Gun Show at the Royal Hobart Showgrounds in Glenorchy in April 2015. Police then visited two of Mr Woods’s properties in New Town including a premises where he had been running a business.

Police seized a receipt book which recorded hundreds of examples of firearms Mr Woods allegedly sold.

Mr Woods did hold current gun licences which allowed for sport/target shooting, vermin control and for collection and Mr Woods had been a longtime firearms dealer previously, however that licence had been cancelled before 2009.

“Some cases hinge on one small detail, but it is the Crown’s case that there were hundreds of weapons either sold or were being held by [Mr Woods] to be sold,” Mr Jacobs said.

Defence lawyer James Crotty said the firearms involved did not require a licence to deal in firearms.

Under an exemption from the Police Commissioner, a person is not required to hold a licence or register a firearm that was manufactured before January 1, 1900 and that was not designed to discharge cartridge ammunition or for which cartridge ammunition is not commercially available.

“We hope to demonstrate that each and every one was either a pre-1900 firearm or were sold through a dealer on [Mr Woods’s] behalf,” Mr Crotty said.