GUN MADE FROM 3D PRINTER

Printer also used to make silencers, ammunition

A NERANG mechanic has become the first person in Queensland to be convicted of manufacturing a fully automatic weapon after using a 3D printer to make submachine guns.

Nickolas Angelo Petrovski, 36, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years prison to be suspended after he had served eight months.

Police found a 3D printer, three silencers, multiple gun barrels, replica pistols, extra magazines and bullets during a raid on his workshop.

A NERANG mechanic used a 3D printer to make four fully automatic submachine guns and had the help of an instruction manual to make the weapons which are capable of a “catastrophic degree of dangerousness”.

Nickolas Angelo Petrovski became the first person in Queensland to be convicted of manufacturing a fully automatic weapon.

Judge David Kent sentenced Petrovski, 36, to five years prison to be suspended after he had served eight months.

“No person is allowed to lawfully possess submachine guns at all because of the catastrophic degree of dangerousness they would present, particularly in the hands of the criminal groups that are interested in this kind of equipment,” he said.

Police also found a 3D printer, three silencers, multiple gun barrels, replica pistols, extra magazines and bullets during the November 2016 raid on Petrovski’s Lawrence Dve, Nerang workshop.

Petrovski pleaded guilty yesterday in the Southport District Court to one count of manufacturing weapons and two counts of possessing unlawful weapons.

Crown prosecutor Matthew Hynes said the only purpose for the guns, made over a month-long period, would be the military and there was “absolutely no legitimate market”.

“They fire multiple bullets per second, the effects are absolutely devastating,” he said.

Mr Hynes said the instruction manual, which can be purchased online, was found in the false bottom of a chest under two of the guns.

Police examination of the weapons found all four had been fired, Mr Hynes said.

Police found a video of Petrovski shooting one of the submachine guns.

Mr Hynes told the court Petrovski’s fingerprints were found throughout the workshop and on the gun instruction book.

The court was told the 3D printer was bought off Amazon and a large number of items used to make the guns were also used in Petrovski’s fitting and turning business.

It is alleged the “driving force” behind making the weapons was Petrovski’s coaccused Robert France Donaci who is yet to be dealt with by the courts

Donaci made threats to Petrovski and it is not clear what Donaci wanted the guns for, the court was told.

Petrovski’s barrister Tony Kimmins, instructed by Guest Lawyers, said threats had also been made to Petrovski’s family. The nature of those threats were not detailed.