Jack Thompson sentenced over $80k Limevale weapons heist
An 18-year-old who orchestrated an elaborate raid on a farm storing dozens of deadly weapons, flogging the stolen arms on the black market, has been sentenced.
A Toowoomba man who plotted to raid an ‘apocalyptic’ weapons stash worth up to $80,000 used a stolen ute to rip open a secure vault before selling the firearms illegally.
Twenty-year-old Glenvale man Jack Thompson pleaded guilty before Toowoomba District Court on November 18 to his part in a plot to sell stolen weapons on the black market.
Crown prosecutor Hamish McIntyre told the court a then 18-year-old Thompson corralled co-conspirators Toby Gillis, now 30, Peter Kelk, now 42, to raid a secure facility on a remote farm in Limevale where ammunition and high-powered weapons were stored.
At the facility was a custom built vault and floor safe containing a large quantity of firearms and a shipping container filled with ammunition.
Mr McIntyre said Thompson concocted the plan after hearing about the secluded armoury from a friend who worked on the property.
Eventually, they used a stolen Toyota HiLux, which doubled as their getaway vehicle, to rip a door off its hinges, taking ammunition and 42 firearms with a previously determined value of around $60,000 to $80,000.
After fleeing the facility, Thompson’s co-offenders destroyed the stolen HiLux, pouring diesel fuel over the vehicle and setting it alight.
Mr McIntyre said the trio then made the perilous decision to put “black market weapons into the community”.
“The men formed a plan to sell the weapons they had taken,” Mr McIntyre said.
“It was a fairly determined course by all men.
“He was certainly involved in discussing sales with people to whom the weapons were vended.”
Six of the stolen weapons, including three category A weapons, a semiautomatic shotgun, a pump action shotgun and a semiautomatic handgun, are yet to be recovered.
“It is a very serious feature here that quite a large number of weapons including some quite dangerous weapons have ended up unaccounted for,” Mr McIntyre added.
Thompson was also found in possession of a stolen weapon upon his arrest.
Barrister Scott Lynch said Thompson youth should be a “prominent consideration” for the court.
The defence barrister advised Thompson was in the throes of addiction at the time of his offending.
“He was dependant at the time this offending occurred, he has been abstinent since being in custody, Mr Lynch said.
He added Thompson had indicated he would plead guilty from early in proceedings, with any delay in sentencing due contention over one charge which had since been dropped by the prosecution.
Judge John Allen KC encouraged Thompson to turn his life around while he was still young.
“(Your family) with no doubt would suffer great sadness if you were to continue to abuse methylamphetamine and effectively waste the rest of your life,” he said.
“You’re still at a young age where rehabilitation is important, you still have the opportunity to take a different course in life.”
The young offenders co-accused Gillis was sentenced to five years, with two years and six months to be served before his release on bail, and 242 days declared time served.
Kelk was given eight years imprisonment with 835 days declared time served.
Thompson stood charged on six counts of unlawfully supplying weapons, two counts of unlawful use of a motor vehicle, three counts of breaking and entering, and one count each of enter premises with intent to commit a crime, arson, unlawful supply of a category A weapon and unlawful possession of a category H weapon.
He was sentenced to five years, wholly suspended after 12 months for an operational period of five years.
The term was effectively immediately suspended as 12 months of Thompson’s pre-sentence custody was declared time served.
A further 432 days of pre-sentence custody was taken into account but not counted towards the sentence.
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Originally published as Jack Thompson sentenced over $80k Limevale weapons heist
