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A New Zealand gun supplier to Hollywood movie sets claims he has missed out on a lucrative deal to provide weapons to Sylvester Stallone's Rambo 4 production after police seized his entire collection.
Now gun collector Martin Bath plans to mount a legal challenge against Hamilton Police's right to confiscate and destroy the guns, which were seized as part of a crackdown.
Mr Bath wants $1 million worth of his artillery back so he can save his business, which supplies high-tech guns to the movie and television industries.
But Hamilton Police have refused to release the confiscated weapons.
Mr Bath said he could not tender for jobs without his stock, which was slowly bankrupting him.
With the Rambo 4 job gone he feared he would now miss the opportunity to supply The Fall of Saigon - a picture to be shot in Asia this year.
In December Mr Bath was one of several dealers or collectors targeted by police in Operation Daisy, an inquiry that began with raids on gang houses throughout the country. The premises of several firearms dealers and gun collectors were also searched.
Although he was not arrested, Mr Bath endured a 10-hour police interrogation about his arsenal of weapons, which numbers about 700. His licence was suspended and police confiscated the guns -75 per cent of which were set up to fire blanks.
Six other people were arrested almost immediately, including Hamilton gun dealer Dale Jenner.
The Crown prosecutor's case against Jenner, understood to centre on a charge of supplying an undercover police officer with an military-style semi-automatic, is still before the courts.
Mr Bath's lawyer Nicholas Taylor said police had intercepted phone conversations with his client, culminating in a 19-hour search of his family home just before Christmas.
In the search warrant presented to Mr Bath, police had made a wide array of allegations which seemed to have stemmed from bugged phone conversations, Mr Taylor said.
He presumed that a phone conversation between him and Jenner was of interest to police.
"I've asked for them [transcripts of the phone intercepts] but I haven't got them," Mr Taylor said.
Mr Bath said police believed he had illegally sold a firearm to Jenner, something he disputed. "I was quite shocked."
Mr Taylor said six months had passed since the raid on his client's property and it was frustrating that nothing seemed to be progressing. There had been no sign that Mr Bath would be charged and police had refused to communicate with him.
"The position is totally that he's done absolutely nothing wrong," Mr Taylor said. "This is a major firearms business, a million-dollar business providing firearms.
"I have papers showing the considerable efforts Mr Bath has gone to to get import permits. It's a very difficult business to actually import guns and then export them to movie sets overseas and re-import them."
An application under the Arms Act would be lodged with the courts this week to revoke the suspension of Mr Bath's licence and return all his assets.
Detective Senior Sergeant Mike Whitehead of Hamilton Police said he would respond to Herald questions after today's article went to print.
