NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Administrative Decision – 2015

We represented a former President of a Sydney chapter of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang (OMCG) at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal whose firearm licence was revoked by the Commissioner of NSW Police.

The Police, instructing a commercial law firm rather than its in-house law firm, the Office of the General Counsel, argued that our client failed the ‘fit and proper person’ test for what they said was our client’s ongoing membership and association with the OMCG.

Our client had no convictions in NSW and had only ever been to court to dispute a traffic ticket. There was a minor failure by him in relation to one of the requirements of his firearm licence, which he had held for decades, and the police tried to argue that their reason for raiding our client’s home was to revoke his firearm licence rather than conduct an inspection of his firearm storage (of which there were no anomalies).

Despite the police obtaining the benefit of a secret second hearing in which they could disclose evidence of ‘criminal intelligence’ to which we had no access, the NCAT ruled that the police had not proved its case and ordered the reinstatement of our client’s licence subject to conditions.