The Entrance: Scott James Gascoigne sentenced for supplying drugs and weapons to fund his own addiction

A man who was just three weeks into a community-based sentence for drugs and weapons offences was busted again with a cache of guns, knives and tasers, a court has heard.

Scott James Gascoigne, 29, of The Entrance, has been convicted and sentenced after he was caught with guns, ammunition, tasers and thousands of dollars worth of cash at his Ozone St apartment. Picture: supplied

A man busted with an arsenal of two shortened rifles, air pistol, two tasers, an extendible baton and a trench knife had them for “protection” rather than retribution, a court has heard.

Scott James Gascoigne was sentenced in Downing Centre District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to 20 drug and firearm-related offences.

The court heard the Crown had argued the now 29-year-old was stockpiling guns and weapons to enforce the collection of debts owed to him by drug addicts.

However a judge found there was no evidence to support the allegation and accepted Gascoigne had the growing arsenal of prohibited firearms, ammunition, knives and tasers for his own protection and as a form of currency people had traded for more drugs.

Gascoigne was arrested at his Ozone St apartment on May 6, 2021, by Tuggerah Lakes Police attached to Operation Utah, established to proactively target serious crime in the Northern Region of NSW from the Hawkesbury River to the Queensland border.

One of the guns seized.

And some of the cash. Pictures: NSW Police

Police seized two shortened .22-calibre rifles, an air pistol, methylamphetamine, ammunition, two tasers, a taser cartridge, an extendible baton, knives, cannabis and methylamphetamine.

Among the other items located at the two-bedroom unit and in his car parked outside included two mobile phones, a “tick list” of drug transactions, clear resealable plastic bags and digital scales.

An extendible baton seized by officers. Picture: NSW Police

Police also seized $35,000 in cash which Gascoigne told officers at least $23,000 of which was from the sale of two motorbikes, pokie machine winnings, pay from his cash-in-hand job as a carpet layer and his superannuation.

Giving evidence at his sentence hearing late last year Gascoigne said he was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the search but knew what was going on and co-operated with police.

He told the court he was supplying drugs to fund his own ice addiction and his gambling habit, which had spiralled out of control.

A scary looking “trench knife” seized during the raid of Gascoigne’s unit. Picture: NSW Police

Gascoigne said he was spending anywhere up to $5000 a day on pokies and had the various weapons and guns because people had either swapped them for drugs and partially for his own protection from an unnamed man who was “pressuring” him at the time.

On Thursday District Court Judge David Wilson said he accepted Gascoigne’s evidence that he had the weapons for his own protection rather than to collect debts.

The court heard Gascoigne had been convicted and sentenced to an intensive corrections order (ICO) for other drug-related offences just three weeks before he was picked up in May 2021 and he was also subject to a firearm prohibition order, which prevented him from possessing or obtaining firearms, weapons or ammunition, at the time.

Judge Wilson said while Gascoigne was on an ICO at the time, he was now off drugs and “motivated to rehabilitate himself”, making him a “low risk of reoffending”.

He sentenced Gascoigne to five years jail with a non-parole period of two years and six months.

With time already served he will be eligible for release on May 18 next year.