Man previously caught with cache of weapons found with yet another firearm

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A gang member recently jailed for illegally accumulating firearms at his father’s Frasertown farmhouse, has served more jail time for similar offending.

Adam Kelliher, a 29-year-old forest worker and Black Power member, who does not have a firearms licence, was sentenced last year to time served of five months, 26 days, after being caught in 2021 with a cache of weapons — a Heackler and Koch .22 calibre rifle, a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, a Carl Gustav 308 calibre rifle, and Marlin .22 calibre rifle

Within five months of his release from prison, he came to police attention again, prompting a search of the property at about 6am on November 22 last year. Officers found a cut-down .22 calibre Sterling semi-automatic rifle inside the front door and alongside it, a magazine containing two rounds of live .22 ammunition.

However, charges were not laid for those offences until police searched the property again in March this year, seizing further items —  58 live rounds of .22 ammunition found in the house, 10 cannabis plants that were growing in the backyard, and a stolen boat hidden in a woolshed.

The boat, a 14 foot, 150-horse power Black Jack valued at $12,000,  had been stolen so recently that the Napier owner had not yet noticed it was missing. Kelliher admitted receiving it but said he had done so recklessly, not intentionally.

He was remanded in custody, where he has remained ever since having been refused bail at least twice due to the earlier firearms offending and the lack of deterrence the previous prison term seemed to have on him.

Kelliher pleaded guilty in May this year to the majority of charges arising from the more recent offending —two counts of unlawfully possessing ammunition, receiving, and cultivating cannabis.

He maintained a not guilty plea to unlawfully possessing a pistol, disputing whether the .22 rifle found in November could be legally defined as a firearm since it was inoperable when officers discovered it. 

Sentencing Kelliher in Gisborne District Court yesterday, Judge Warren Cathcart accepted counsel Manaaki Terekia’s submissions that a sentence of time served was possible.

Content with the prospect of immediate release, Kelliher changed his previous not guilty plea on the disputed charge, to guilty and waived his right to a pre-sentence report.

The judge calculated an end sentence of 13 months imprisonment but imposed it as time-served of six months, two days.

The offending was serious, especially in the context of Wairoa’s gang situation and the inferences to be drawn as to why Kelliher had the weapons, the judge said. He recalled previously sentencing Kelliher for the cached firearms and noted the prison term hadn’t deterred him from reoffending — “arrogance” that was a concern for the court.

Because of that reoffending, Kelliher’s bail applications, including to a marae-based rehabilitation facility, had been refused by the judge. However, he said he had been conscious during those various hearings that the prison lag this time had been particularly difficult for Kelliher.

He warned Kelliher to stay mindful of that. With two prison terms now on his record for similar firearms offending, any repeat offence could only result in him being refused bail and jailed again for even longer.

The sentence imposed began with a global starting point for all the offending of 18 months imprisonment then one month’s uplift for the previous relevant convictions. There was a full 25 percent discount for Kelliher’s guilty pleas and further discount for his background factors.

While Kelliher’s background was not represented to the court in a formal way this time around, the judge said it was well known to him because of the previous sentencing and from previous court matters relating to Kelliher’s father.

The judge made an order enabling the destruction of the items seized.