A man who let his neighbour borrow two rifles, which were then stolen in a burglary, was strongly reprimanded and fined in the Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The court was told Leigh Bigham had not asked if his neighbour had a licence or a safe to store the rifles in, and was unaware his neighbour was a prohibited person.
Not long after he loaned him the rifles, a .308 with scope and a .22, the neighbour's house was broken into and the rifles were stolen.
Representing himself, Bigham pleaded guilty and was fined $500 with conviction.
"I can't prove anything other than my own ignorance for not asking first," he said.
"He was in the army and everything he talked about - I stupidly assumed he automatically had a licence - I've kicked myself every day since."
Magistrate Ron Saines brought up the recent shooting on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne as evidence that illegal guns were still a major problem in Victoria.
"All it takes is for someone to (remove) registration numbers - it's a valuable weapon for the most serious crimes," he said.
"It's a lesson for you and everyone else."
The guns have not yet been recovered.
Earlier on Monday, in a separate case, a man avoided conviction after pleading guilty to possessing an unregistered pump-action shotgun and hiding it in his pool table.
The court was told the man, from Smythes Creek, took the gun after his former daughter-in-law found it while clearing out her deceased father's home.
Police executed a search warrant in June 2019, and the man gave them the gun.
There was no ammunition found, and the man said he had never fired it - he added he wasn't aware he needed to register it, or hold a licence.
Mr Saines told him unregistered firearms helped to create a black market for criminals.
"Your ignorance - it did not in this case - potentially services the most serious criminal elements," he said.
"If criminals find a firearm like this in a burglary, it's a jackpot really."
The man was given a 12 month adjourned undertaking, and order to pay $500 to the court fund.
Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.