It was a home-made stun gun fashioned from a torch, it was illegal, and it led to jail term, to be served in the community, for the man who possessed it.
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Reggie Peters, 26, was busted with the “makeshift electrical shock device” as well as a laser pointer as he stood in Lovett Avenue in Dubbo.
In Dubbo Local Court he pleaded guilty to possessing a prohibited weapon and to having custody of a laser pointer in a public place.
Magistrate Paul Hayes sentenced Peters to a seven-month jail term, to be served by way of an intensive correction order (ICO).
As a condition of the punishment, the offender has also been banned from using alcohol or drugs.
Police were conducting patrols when they saw Peters standing on the side of the road, court documents show.
When officers stopped and talked to him, he was sweating and hesitant.
Checks led to them conducting a search and Peters was holding what appeared to be a black LED torch, but police saw it had black electrical tape taped to one end.
A further look showed it appeared to have been modified to allow it to be used as a home-made stun gun.
It was 22cm in length and had two metal prongs sticking out the top near the torch light.
The device was fully functional, emitting an electric current between the two prongs when activated.
In court Peters’ solicitor said his client had been found with a “makeshift electronic shock device”, a torch “re-fashioned to have an electric current at one end”.
The defence submitted the device was not in the most serious of its relevant category and there was no evidence that it had been used.
In recent weeks Peters had moved with family from Dubbo to Brewarrina, he had started working as a handyman and was seeking to get on with his life, the court heard.
The prosecution submitted the threshold for a jail term had been crossed.
In sentencing Peters, the magistrate told him a hand-made stun gun was a serious offence, and that it carried a maximum term of 14 years in jail.
Mr Hayes said he accepted the offence was toward the lower end of its scale, but noted Peters’s record was of no assistance.
With the nature of the item and the effort taken to adapt it, the court was of the view there was no alternative to a term of imprisonment, to be served by way of an ICO, he said.
Peters was fined $400 for the laser pointer offence.
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