Two brothers, who were being investigated by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on suspicion of illegally growing tobacco, have appeared in Ballarat Magistrate’s Court charged with firearms offences.
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Farmers John and Paul Grabovic faced court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to several charges, including possession of prohibited firearms.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Aimee Heal said the ATO and Ballarat police had been conducting a joint investigation, based on suspicions the brothers were illegally growing tobacco on their 9.3ha (23 acre) property.
On 1 March 2018, Ballarat police executed a search warrant at the Grabovic’s property and confiscated a range of weapons, including two long-armed rifles in “poor condition”, a Beretta semi-automatic with no magazine, another loaded 2.2 and a double-barrelled shotgun – both deemed category A firearms, and packets of ammunition.
Ammunition was also found in a bedside cupboard drawer and one of the men had some “in his pocket’, and “all firearms were unlicensed and unregistered,” Sergeant Heal said.
She said when interviewed, the brothers said the guns were “very old and had belonged to their father” who had passed away.
The Grabovics’ defence lawyer said the brothers had not known about the guns and had only recently found them in the roof of the house under some insulation ‘pink bats’.
Magistrate Gregory Robinson asked why the brothers had not surrendered the guns to police after finding them, to which he was told, “they found the guns on the Tuesday, they’ve had a medical appointment on the Wednesday and then they are raided on the Thursday. It was just bad timing.”
The court was told both men have significant health issues and that Paul Grabovic had spent eight years on dialysis before having a kidney transplant in 2006.
“Both men are on disability pensions, and after paying the farm mortgage, finances are very tight,” he said.
Mr Robinson accepted the men’s early guilty plea and their co-operation with police, but said,”I have a suspicion you would have known about these guns, given they belonged to your father, but I have nothing to substantiate my suspicions so I will give you the benefit of the doubt for this version of events.”
Both men were fined $800 and court costs of $124.30 each, and all firearms were forfeited.
