A Port Kembla firearms dealer who trafficked hundreds of guns on the black market, one of which was used in a fatal gangland shooting in Sydney, has been sentenced to 13 years' jail.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Judge Andrew Haesler said Shane Simpson's actions in supplying guns to unknown persons over a seven-year period had put the community at "considerable risk".
Of the 276 guns he supplied, just a fraction have been recovered, and all of those at active crimes scenes.
"This was organised criminal activity, committed without regard for public safety," he said.
The court heard Simpson ran the sophisticated racket undetected from his Wentworth Street shop, Simpson Sports, for seven years before police swooped on him in an early morning raid on April 10, 2019.
Police have not revealed how they first became aware of the enterprising venture, however court documents said detectives managed to link 276 pistols to the scam by trawling through more than half a decade's worth of shonky NSW Firearms Registry records.
Simpson used the geographical boundary of the registry to avoid detection by creating fake entries in the licencing database claiming the guns had been sold interstate.
Court documents said of the 276 pistols illegally sold between February 2013 and April 2019, only 10 have been recovered by police and all were found at active crimes scenes, some as far away as Brisbane and Adelaide.
The most high-profile discovery was a Glock 17A pistol allegedly used in a drive-by at Greystanes last February and again in a fatal bikie shooting at Doonside in May.
In a sentencing hearing last month, Simpson claimed he reluctantly became involved in the gun racket after assisting a man by partly assembling a rifle one day in the shop without checking the man's licence.
He said he was shown a video a few weeks later of the same gun being used to shoot a person in the back of the head.
The man who showed Simpson the video told him "we'll be in touch".
Simpson claimed he received phone calls demanding pistols, with the callers telling him they knew where he lived and that he had a family .
"They said 'you know what we're capable of'," Simpson told the court.
On Monday, Judge Andrew Haesler was sceptical of Simpson's explanation, saying while he accepted the 47-year-old had been under some duress at the start of the criminal offending, it did not explain why he kept up the supply for so long.
He also rejected Simpson's suggestion that he wanted to get caught.
"The rationale for his initial offending is hard to accept - the rationale for his continued offending even more so," he said.
"Simpson was in regular contact with licensing police. He had many chances to get caught, instead he went to efforts not to be detected.
"He was trusted to trade in firearms. He breached that trust over a long period and in doing so... put our community at considerable risk."
Judge Haesler set a non-parole period of 8 years and 6 months.
With time served, Simpson will be eligible to apply for parole in October 2027.
We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.
Subscribe to our newsletters
