Kyle Sandilands takes NSW Police to court after refusing his gun licence application

Australia’s biggest radio star Kyle Sandilands is taking police to court after they rejected his application for a gun licence.

Australia’s biggest radio star Kyle Sandilands is taking police to court after they rejected his application for a gun licence.

Sandilands, 50, applied for the licence last year but in September this year was told by police they would not be granting him one.

The Daily Telegraph can now reveal the KIIS FM star has launched proceedings before the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) against NSW Police, with police sources confirming he is seeking a review of the decision.

Australia’s biggest radio star Kyle Sandilands is taking police to court after they rejected his application for a gun licence. Picture: Justin Lloyd.

It is understood the initial application, which Sandilands spoke about on his breakfast show, was rejected by police for a number of reasons.

Sources close to the radio star said they included concerns over comments he made on air regarding guns and the background of some of his associates.

Sandilands has long counted convicted drug trafficker Simon Main, who spent four years in a European jail for his role in a massive ecstasy importation in 2000, among his close friends.

His good mate and nightclubs boss John Ibrahim is subject to a firearms prohibition order (FPO) — despite never having been convicted of a crime.

In the hours after police carried out a raid on Ibrahim’s clifftop mansion at the time the FPO was issued in 2018, Sandilands arrived in the Dover Heights street and poked fun at his friend, famously claiming there was more likely to be “sex toys” than guns at his home.

A directions hearing for Sandilands’ proceedings is set before NCAT’s Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division for December 21.

In a statement, NSW Police said “personal history checks” were a part of the process for all gun licence applications.

“The NSW Firearms Registry fully reviews all new licence applications to ensure they satisfy their licensing requirement,” a police spokesman said.

“This includes conducting personal history checks to ensure all provisions within the legislation – including provisions with respect to public safety – are met.

“When a Notice of Refusal is issued by the Firearms Registry, it includes the reason for refusal and details all appeal rights.”

Sandilands has long enjoyed an interest in firearms and has regularly attended pistol clubs when based in the United States, where he has a home in Los Angeles.

In a 60 Minutes interview with Karl Stefanovic last year, Sandilands filmed part of the segment at the Los Angeles Gun Club.

“It just gets the adrenaline out, plus I am really good at it,” he said when asked what he liked about shooting. “I just imagine all of the people I hate.”

He is understood to attend a local pistol club in Sydney a few times a month, where he has been taught by a former Olympic shooter.

Sandilands pictured with good mate John Ibrahim. Picture: John Grainger

Sandilands has previously made several controversial comments about guns and firearms on his radio show, including in 2016 seemingly backing calls to lift a ban on a rapid-fire shotgun.

“Is it better off that all the criminals have all the weapons and the rest of us are defenceless?” he said, just a few months after a massacre in Orlando, US, that led to the deaths of 49 people.

Representatives for Sandilands said he would not comment as the matter remained before the tribunal.