Officer’s stolen gun suspected of being ‘circulated in the criminal community’ for years

An AFP officer’s “grossly negligent” behaviour is thought to have led to his gun being used in two underworld standovers. FIND OUT ALL THE DETAILS

A bikie who purchased the gun is thought to have pulled it to pieces and had it ditched in Lake Hume. Picture: Simon Dallinger

An AFP officer has been branded “careless and irresponsible” for leaving a loaded gun and ammo in the back of an unlocked police car overnight, leading to its theft and suspected “circulation in the criminal community” for years.

Documents released to the Herald Sun under Freedom of Information laws reveal new details about how the federal agent left his duty belt, including his Glock and spare ammunition, in plain sight inside his unlocked, unmarked police car in the Canberra suburb of Fraser.

A criminal source who unsuccessfully tried to acquire the gun in the days after it was stolen said the Glock had since been used in two armed, bikie-linked standovers near Albury-Wodonga.

The first standover job involved the gun being held to the head of a mid-level drug distributor.

The second involved a “warning shot” being fired in a backyard shed. Neither were reported to local police.

The officer’s Glock pistol and ammunition were left in an unlocked, unmarked police car.

After firing the gun in back shed, within possible earshot of neighbours, the bikie who had purchased the gun is thought to have pulled it to pieces and had it ditched in Lake Hume.

It is unknown whether the AFP has pursued that theory, and the agency has repeatedly declined to detail it’s lines of inquiry.

But internal documents reveal no work has been done on the case since July.

Police documents show the weapon was suspected to have been stolen just before 6am on September 30, 2020, after being left in the unlocked car overnight.

It sparked what an AFP professional standards superintendent described as a “significant police response”.

The investigation quickly went cold, and documents suggest footage from cameras inside the car were of no use to investigators.

In heavily redacted statement, AFP Superintendent Mark Steel said the investigation into the missing gun was effectively dormant.

Supt Steel said the gun’s “potential circulation in the criminal community” was considered a “serious matter”.

“The AFP will not consider this matter concluded until it has recovered the firearm and laid charges against persons responsible for the theft and possession of the firearm,” Supt Steel said.

AFP lawyer Amie Grierson told the Australian Information Commissioner the investigation would only recommence “if (the AFP) receives further information”.

The officer, who has a prior disciplinary history, was not sacked, but was warned his “reckless indifference” to rules governing police weapons storage could count against him if he applied for prestigious overseas deployments, promotions or applications for other AFP jobs.

The AFP regards the precise details of the sanction imposed on the officer to be confidential.

“(Professional Standards Command) considered (the officer’s) conduct on this day to be grossly negligent … his conduct on that morning is considered careless and irresponsible.”

The internal disciplinary panel found AFP rules required the officer should have taken “greater care and due diligence to ensure the vehicle was locked but more relevantly, that the firearms and related accoutrements should not have remained in the police vehicle unattended and out of sight of the AFP member”.