A former police detective and armed offenders squad member has been convicted on a count of unlawfully possessing a firearm but discharged without penalty.
Bradley Keith Shipton, 46, who changed his plea to guilty part-way through a defended hearing on Wednesday, failed in a bid in the Tauranga District Court
yesterday to escape conviction.
His lawyer, Bill Nabney, said the offending was at the lower end of the scale and the consequences on Shipton's business interests would be "out of all proportion to the circumstances".
A conviction could affect any future application for renewal of Shipton's security guard and private investigator's licences.
"This is a man who has led an otherwise blameless life," said Mr Nabney.
But Judge Michael Hobbs said: "This is not a trivial crime." It carried a maximum penalty of three years in jail or a fine of up to $4000.
The most aggravating feature was that Shipton was an experienced ex-member of the armed offenders squad and a longstanding police officer, said the judge. If anybody knew the risk he ran by keeping the firearm without having a licence, it was him.
Mr Nabney said the one-time Tauranga city councillor and bar-owner had simply forgotten the 1911 .45 Colt pistol was stored in a roof cavity of his garage. He had been asked four years ago to dispose of it by the widow of a returned serviceman who had brought it back as a memento from World War II.
The firearm was found last July when police searched Shipton's house on an unrelated matter. It was not assembled and was in poor condition, but functional.
Judge Hobbs said he believed Shipton, who had been refused police diversion on the charge, had been honest and he felt some sympathy for him. But Shipton knew the consequences of having the pistol in his possession.
The judge ordered forfeiture of the weapon.
