An Ulladulla man has avoided a criminal conviction after pleading guilty to using a high powered laser pointer at Wollongong railway station two months ago.
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Police from the transport command were patrolling the station around 5pm on May 21 when they saw Anthony Vella shining a green light on the station’s administration building.
As they approached him the officers saw Vella put a device into his pocket. However, when asked to produce it, he immediately pulled it out and presented it to police, telling them it was a laser pointer.
“I was using it to see how far it went,” he said.
“I wasn’t using it in a malicious way”.
Court documents said when police tested the device it was clearly visible on a building wall approximately 500 metres away.
Officers confiscated the item and charged Vella with using a laser pointer in a public place.
In court on Tuesday, Vella’s lawyer said the 20-year-old’s brother had purchased the item as a gift for him overseas, and he’d only had it for two days before the incident.
He also confirmed Vella had not been aware there was a law against possessing laser pointers in public, however conceded ignorance was no defence to the charge.
Magistrate Susan McGowan found the offence proven but did not record a conviction owing to his prior good character and lack of malicious intent in his use of the device.
