Arrest call finds guns

POLICE dropped by the house of a Bell Post Hill man almost a year after he was granted parole to arrest him over an inconsistent drug test, but a search of his room uncovered much more serious offending.

Bradley Sutton, 29, (right) appeared in the County Court of Victoria and pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing a traffickable quantity of firearms and one charge of negligently dealing with the proceeds of crime.

His defence lawyer, Tim Marsh, told the court police arrived at his Bell Post Hill house to execute an arrest warrant on the paroled man because two drug tests returned evidence of tampering and a donation of a diluted sample.

With the permission of Sutton’s mother, police searched his bedroom and found a .22 bolt-action rifle, a .177 pump-action air rifle and a pen pistol.

An examination of the firearms determined two were operable, while the third could only be made to work with some adjustment of the firing pin.

Mr Marsh submitted that all three firearms were unmodified, and so the “sinister overtones that goes with modification is not present here”.

The court heard one of the rifles was stolen from another man in March 2020, which resulted in the dealing with proceeds of crime charge. It was also noted the trafficking charge related only to the quantity of firearms. Mr Marsh said the tampering charges were ultimately dropped by the parole board and could have seen Sutton freed from any potential consequences but, with “some irony”, he was found with the firearms.

“The very matter that brought the police to his abode was ultimately not pursued but he had the misfortune of being found with the firearms,” the lawyer said.

“It is an unfortunate state of affairs where he is arrested committing these (tampering) offences but ultimately there was no finding.”

Mr Marsh also submitted that Sutton had been found by a court of having “significant issues” with drug abuse in the past, but particularly stimulant abuse, and the current offending was related to that.

Sutton will return to the County Court for sentencing at a later date.