Aggravated Possession of Unregistered Firearm - s93I(2) Crimes Act

Charges of aggravated possession of a gun without a licence can look bad on a person's criminal record.



What could happen:

Admitting that you are innocent

"Aggravated possession of an unregistered firearm" is similar to "possess an unregistered firearm in a public place," but there are "circumstances of aggravation" in this crime.

For this crime to be a crime, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that all three of the following are true:

• That you were in public with a gun that hadn't been registered
• Based on the Firearms Act of 1996, you were not allowed to have the gun.
• There must be one or more things that make you mad.

The law recognises three different kinds of things that make things worse. Prosecutors only need to prove one of the three things listed above in addition to the others:

• If you had more than one gun that wasn't registered, you could get in trouble.
• In this case, the unregistered weapon was a handgun.
• The gun was a "prohibited weapon," so it was against the law to own it.
• You can find a full list of banned weapons at the bottom of this page.

There are a number of ways you might be able to defend yourself against the charges. For example:

• You were allowed to own the gun because the law said so.
• There was a record of who owned the gun.
• You got the gun because someone threatened you or forced you to. I had to keep a pistol on me to protect myself and others from serious harm or danger (necessity)
• You could have used the gun to protect yourself, your property, or someone else's (self-defence)

Taking a guilty plea

You might not want to fight the charges at all if you don't want to. If you agree with the accusations against you, you can enter a "guilty" plea before going to court. So, you won't have to do a trial, which will save you time and money. So, if you take responsibility for what you did and plead guilty, it's more likely that your case will be dealt with in a better way.

Before you plead guilty to a crime, you should talk to a skilled criminal lawyer to find out if you have a chance of defending yourself and being found "not guilty."

If you're thinking about pleading guilty, you should also know the worst things that could happen.

The maximum sentence will depend on whether this case is heard in the Local Court or the District Court.

If a judge in the district court hears the case, the maximum sentence is two years in jail.

For more serious crimes, the maximum sentence in District Court is 14 years, but this option is only open to the prosecution.

Because these are the worst punishments that can be given, they will only be used in the worst cases. The court can send someone to jail only in the worst cases.