Liam James O’Sullivan fined for having stolen UAP election corflutes

A Sunshine Coast teen who was annoyed seeing election corflutes outside his home has been fined after police found about 40 signs in his yard.

A Tanawha man who was fed up with seeing election signs outside his home has been fined $600 for removing them without permission.

Liam James O’Sullivan, 19, pleaded guilty in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on September 8, 2022, to possessing signage that was reasonably suspected of being stolen.

Police prosecutor Sergeant Nick Nitschke said O’Sullivan had been reported to police by United Australia Party candidate Lisa Khoury – who ran for the seat of Fairfax in the 2022 federal election – after her election corflutes kept disappearing from Tanawha Tourist Drive.

Sergeant Nitschke said police spoke with O’Sullivan’s housemate after they discovered about 40 signs in the front yard on May 15, 2022.

“She advised the defendant did not like the signs outside his address and on the footpath so he decided to remove the signs and put them in his front yard,” he said.

“Police spoke with the defendant, he acknowledged he removed the signs and placed them in his yard but he didn't know the consequences of doing so.”

Liam James O’Sullivan pleaded guilty to possessing signage that was reasonably suspected of being stolen.

Police recovered the stolen signs and returned them to Ms Khoury.

Duty lawyer Katie Patterson said O’Sullivan’s decision to remove the signs was not “politically motivated”.

“He just didn’t like the signs outside of his address and they kept getting replaced every time he took them down,” she said.

“He put them in the front yard, he had no intention of doing anything with them.”

Magistrate Stephanie Tonkins said O’Sullivan’s actions were unfair towards the candidate and went against the “democratic process”.

“Corflutes are actually quite expensive and on top of that there’s quite a lot of work to put them out,” she said.

“You would have been such a pain in the neck for these candidate who were trying to get their voice and face out there in time for the election which was only a few days later because the signs kept disappearing.”

No conviction was recorded.

Ms Khoury was approached for comment.