Police worker guilty of hiding guns in dummies

Photo / Thinkstock

A Wellington police employee has been found guilty of illegally possessing fully- and semi-automatic weapons.

Patrick Phipps, 44, a technology support engineer at the Royal New Zealand Police College in Porirua, was found guilty of two charges of illegal possession of a Finnish Velmet semi-automatic and a Czechoslovakian VZ58 automatic rifle following his trial in Wellington District Court today.

The guns were found inside the torso and legs of hollow, uniformed mannequins in a locked room at his Johnsonville home.

A third mannequin had gun parts hidden in it.

It was reported to police after an anonymous tip off to Crimestoppers.

Phipps told the court yesterday he had never seen the guns before and had no idea they were there.

He will be sentenced on Friday.

- NZPA