Liam Andreas McIlroy pleads guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court after taking briefcase containing two guns

When an elderly driver nudged their car in a shopping centre car park, two ‘silly’ mates decided to teach him a lesson – a choice which would lead to guns, multiple search warrants and a police stake out.

A pair of mates got more than they bargained for when a “silly” decision to get back at another man for bumping their car sparked a crazy chain of events.

Liam Andreas McIlroy pleaded guilty in Bundaberg Magistrates Court to one charge of entering a premises and committing an indictable offence.

The charge stemmed from a day in August where the victim, a 76-year-old legal gun owner, stopped at Coles Kensington on his way home from the Childers Road firing range so he could go into the Brother’s Sports Club.

CCTV captured the 76-year-old man’s car bumping another.

The court heard a man fitting McIlroy’s description got out of his car and signalled to the victim there had been no damage to his car.

However, Police Prosecutor Sergeant Grant Klassen said McIlroy had decided “he should take something from the victim”.

As it happened, the victim had inadvertently left his car open and a locked briefcase on the front passenger seat.

When McIlroy, the mate who had been in the car with him, and a third man, managed to unlock the briefcase at a Branyan property, they were shocked to find guns inside it and panicked.

“On arrival the briefcase was opened,” Sgt Klassen told the court.

“That is when they realised there were two guns involved inside.

“He recognised the guns as real ones and he stated that himself and the two defendants panicked and they put the guns into another bag and then buried the bag on the property.”

The following day, police executed two search warrants at an address in Bundaberg, one for McIlroy’s home and one for his vehicle but couldn’t find the guns.

Sgt Klassen said McIlroy was found and arrested at Southside Central.

It was then, Sgt Klassen said, that McIlroy was taken to the Bundaberg Police Station where he confessed to the bizarre series of events in an interview.

The court heard McIlroy had nothing further to do with the guns.

“They all did the wrong thing by trying to cover up their tracks and if those guns go into the wrong hands we all know where they lead, they don’t go back to the sports club,” Sgt Klassen said.

A further search of the property where the guns were said to be buried was conducted, but when police arrived, they found the weapons had been dug up and been moved.

The court heard officers then conducted static surveillance and another defendant known to the two men was arrested and admitted he’d been the one to move the guns to another location because he was panicking that they would fall into the wrong hands and he did not know what to do.

That defendant then led police to a new spot where the guns had been hidden.

McIlroy, who has no prior criminal history, told Bundaberg Magistrates Court he had learned a lesson from the experience which he admitted was a “silly idea” and “big mistake”.

He said he hadn’t been the one who took the briefcase but admitted he was the driver.

“It ended up being something a lot worse than I thought it was going to be,” McIlroy said.

McIlroy was fined $500, deferred to SPER.

No conviction was recorded.

The guns were returned to their legal owner.