By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A MAN on a community corrections order found driving a stolen car with four stolen firearms and goods linked to a Hampton Park home burglary has been told by a judge he’s “exactly the sort of person who shouldn’t be in possession of a firearm”.
Sargis Mkrtchyan, 24, pleaded guilty to offences including suspected proceeds of crime, theft of motor vehicle, drug possession and being a prohibited person possessing firearms in Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 2 May.
However the charge of trafficking unregistered firearms was dropped due to the arms being registered by the rightful owner.
The weapons had been stolen from a gun safe in a Rosebud home burglary in late March.
In April, Mkrtchyan allegedly crashed a car stolen from Sandringham into a parked vehicle. The latter vehicle moved six feet as a result of the crash, the court was told.
He exchanged identity details with the other car owner and was later located by police in a stolen Mazda with stolen number plates outside a Dandenong home.
Inside the car were shotguns from the Rosebud burglary as well as shotgun cartridges, ecstasy tablets, morphine, ice, syringes, and a laser pointer.
Police seized “numerous” suspected stolen items such as phones and car keys, the court was told.
Police also seized items believed to be used for burglaries such as latex gloves, Ninja gloves, four torches, a back pack, hatchet, axe and bolt-cutter, prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Kerryn Steyn said.
In a police interview, Mkrtchyan admitted to possessing drugs of dependence and ammunition, and driving offences but claimed he had no knowledge of the stolen property.
He’d been with a friend called Jason who had given him the suspected stolen car keys, he told police.
Mkrtchyan’s lawyer urged the court not to impose a crushing sentence given the accused’s young age.
The accused had relapsed into drug use and had doubts he’d get parole given he’d previously breached parole following a jail term for armed robbery.
The lawyer said there was an argument that the accused didn’t know about the guns – which were wrapped in a bag – and that much of the suspected stolen property was not stolen but was the proceeds of crime.
Magistrate Jack Vandersteen said some of the defence was “marginal” and the criminality at a “high end”.
Mkrtchyan was on a community corrections order at the time of the offending for theft of a vehicle, burglary and failing to stop for police.
Mr Vandersteen re-sentenced the accused on those older offences.
“He has had the opportunity and hasn’t made the most of it by re-offending and actual non-compliance (with the corrections order).
“He’s exactly the sort of person who shouldn’t be in possession of a firearm and he’s associating with people who shouldn’t have firearms at all.”
Mkrtchyan was jailed for 15 months with a non-parole period of nine months.
