Nicholas John Kostowski and Robert Kostowski busted with cache of guns and ammo cop five figure fines

Two men busted with a large cache of unsecured guns and ammo at a cattle station south of Katherine after being caught up in a police cattle rustling sting have copped five figure fines.

TWO men busted with a large cache of unsecured guns and ammo at a cattle station south of Katherine after being caught up in a police cattle rustling sting have copped five figure fines.

Nenen Cattle Station owner Nicholas John Kostowski, 70 and his son Robert Kostowski, 30, each pleaded guilty in the Katherine Local Court to a raft of firearms offences following a raid “in relation to an investigation into the ongoing large scale theft of cattle” in June.

During the raid, police found numerous unregistered and unsecured firearms, including revolvers and semiautomatic rifles along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a bayonet, gel blaster and fireworks.

When officers questioned Nicholas Kostowski about the unsecured weapons he told them he had been “chasing some cats” with one of the shotguns and used one of the rifles to shoot a horse and neglected to put them away.

When Robert Kostowski was asked about a revolver reported stolen from Ban Ban Station and found in his bedroom cupboard he replied “bullshit” and “I didn’t steal it”.

“I don’t want to put anyone in the shit but I got it off a bloke who, at the time, was working for a company that had Ban Ban as, in their portfolio sort of thing,” he said.

When asked about the illegal fireworks Robert Kostowski asked: “Fireworks no go?”

“I’ll be f***ed, I didn’t know that sorry, we pulled out two boxes yesterday for Territory Day, they were left over from last year,” he said.

When informed the gel blaster was also illegal he replied “Ah bullshit”.

The men’s lawyer, Ray Murphy, told the court his clients used the guns for the legitimate station business of euthanising animals and eradicating pests

“When you have feral animals coming up around the homestead to go to the safe, to open the safe, to get the thing loaded etc, those pests are gone in the meantime — that’s the reason that that’s sitting there (but) it’s no excuse, it’s certainly unlawful,” he said.

“(Nicholas Kostowski) knows what his obligations are as a firearms owner of many years and that he didn’t meet that standard and that’s why he’s pleaded guilty today.”

Mr Murphy said Robert Kostowski also used the firearms for legitimate farming purposes, including euthanising cattle with the revolver which he didn’t know was stolen.

“The reason for him having the firearms that he did is not to go around holding up banks or anything like that, it’s to knock over the feral pests etc at his father’s property,” he said.

In handing both men $15,000 fines, Chief Judge Elizabeth Morris said they had displayed “a blatant disregard for the regulatory requirements in relation to firearms”.

“It is clear from the mass of offences which they have pleaded guilty to that this was a dereliction of their duty, not just to the regulatory scheme but to the safety and security of anyone who lived, worked or visited the property,” she said.

“(But) I do accept counsel’s submission that these were not connected to some nefarious purpose, there was no drugs or other offending paraphernalia with unregistered firearms or sawn off shotguns, for example, used in relation to other illegal activity and I accept that.”