Gun collector in hot water over missing weapons

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A Coromandel gun collector was remanded on bail after appearing in court today on charges of possessing and supplying weapons and making a false complaint.

John Noel Mabey, 43, told police last month that over 100 weapons, including pistols, machine guns and an inoperable rocket launcher, were stolen from his Hot Water Beach home in July.

Mabey's collectors licence was revoked in August.

Police investigated and arrested him on September 13 on firearms charges and for making a false statement regarding the burglary.

In Thames District Court today Mabey faced 12 charges of supplying firearms to unauthorised people, three of illegally possessing pistols, four of illegally possessing explosives and one of making a false statement.

Police in Auckland last week arrested a fugitive and said two pistols found on him came from Mabey's collection. Two other pistols also found in Auckland were from the same collection.

Police offered an amnesty for the return of the weapons, but none had been handed in when the amnesty ended on Sunday.

Waikato police today released a list of all the weapons still missing from the collection.

"Police hold grave concerns the other weapons, which include assault rifles, pistols, light and sub-machine guns that may have also been sold on the black market," said inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant Greg Nicholls.

He said a continued amnesty for the weapons would be considered on a case by case basis.

"As we said earlier our priority remains getting these weapons off the streets, some of these weapons may have been sold to other collectors early this year and we want to hear from these people.

"We're very concerned 121 restricted firearms are out in the public domain," he said.

Mabey was remanded today to appear for pre-depositions hearing in Thames District Court on November 2.

- NZPA