Staff Sergeant Brian Egerton is facing a Court Martial at Linton Military Camp this week. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
Staff Sergeant Brian Egerton is facing a Court Martial at Linton Military Camp this week. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
A soldier allegedly sold $18,000 worth of army uniforms, gear, spent ammunition and used explosives on TradeMe.
Staff Sergeant Brian Egerton was found with a range of Defence Force (NZDF) items at his home after an investigation by military police on the online auction website.
The items included Swiss army knives, “bivvy bags”, pieces of NZDF uniform, backpack parts and rifle cleaning kits.
Egerton said he got most of the gear in “free bins” and through a disposal sale scheme, where ex-service NZDF gear is sold.
He now faces several charges at a court martial held at Linton Military Camp near Palmerston North this week. He is accused of stealing service gear and attempting to profit from it on TradeMe. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Egerton pleaded guilty this morning to two charges of failing to comply with written orders for possessing spent ammunition as well as parts of exploded Claymore mines.
Egerton later told investigators he had taken the used explosives from the Waiouru Military Camp’s dump and had collected the spent ammunition from a treeline.
According to the Crown’s summary of facts presented to the court today, presented by Flying Officer Lucie Bardoul, an NZDF employee had been scanning TradeMe to see if any service gear was being sold.
That employee found multiple auctions, which appeared to be for NZDF service gear and made inquiries with TradeMe for the seller’s details.
It’s the Crown’s case he was using his partner’s account and the phone number associated with the profile matched his on the army’s database.
Military police estimated nearly 500 auctions run by the seller that appeared to be NZDF property and confronted Egerton about the listings in 2022.
According to the Crown, Egerton said he had been selling property on TradeMe and acknowledged that he knew he was not allowed to and had other military kit at his home.
Staff Sgt. Brian Egerton has admitted charges of possessing spent ammunition and explosives. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
He then handed over miscellaneous service gear to Military Police and said he’d only sold 24 items and that this was the first time he’d done it.
However, the Crown claims according to TradeMe’s records, the seller, whom they had associated with Egerton, had been selling what appeared to be NZDF property since 2019 across some 600 auctions.
Some of those auctions had been for belts of spent ammunition as well as parts of used claymore mines. These explosives were not live and had already been used.
The Crown claims the value of the property it alleges Egerton sold was $35,000 but he made roughly $18,000 from those sales.
It claims that ammunition was sold across five separate auctions while mine parts were sold across 50 auctions.
Judge Gerard Winter is presiding over the court martial this week. Photo / Jeremy Wilkinson
The Crown intends to call 15 witnesses in coming days, the first of which was a member of the military police who gave evidence before the court this afternoon that he confronted Egerton while he was at his work at Linton where he admitted to selling NZDF property on TradeMe.
That officer told the court that he’d asked Egerton why he was selling the kit, to which he claimed he responded; “To make money and to get rid of old kit”.
Under questioning the officer said that he had conducted similar investigations in the past and they were relatively common.
He was also questioned about how well it was known among NZDF personnel that it was an offence to sell military property.
“I would venture, and be so bold, that everyone knows you’re not supposed to,” the officer said.
“It is taught from a very early stage in a soldier’s career that it is not to be done.”
Another witness confirmed it was common to see army gear for sale online, but it was the sheer scale of items that caught the attention of military police in this case.
Jeremy Wilkinson is an Open Justice reporter based in Manawatū covering courts and justice issues with an interest in tribunals. He has been a journalist for nearly a decade and has worked for NZME since 2022.
