Bag full of illegal guns found in caravan near Goulburn results in jail time

A man who left four unregistered guns in a bag inside a caravan near Goulburn, one of them being a prohibited weapon, has been sent to jail.

Troy Tillman was sentenced to more than two years’ jail by the NSW District Court earlier in April, with a non-parole period of one year and four months.

He was living at a home in Marulan, which is about 30 km northeast of Goulburn, when police were called to the residence in October 2023.

Officers arrived to find a large camping swag in a caravan where Tillman had been keeping his belongings.

Underneath the swag they found a bag containing four guns, including a Ruger M77 rifle, a Stirling rifle and a 12-gauge Bito double-barrelled shotgun.

The fourth gun was a Gevarm A6 self-loading rifle, which is a prohibited weapon.

The Gevarm and Bito were found to be in working order, while the Ruger and Stirling were not, as both were each missing a bolt.

None of them had ever been registered except for the Ruger, which had been registered to a different person in 2011.

At the time, the then-48-year-old Tillman didn’t hold a firearm licence or permit. While he had one previously, it had been revoked in 2018.

He was arrested and went on to tell clinical psychologist Sam Borenstein he’d had the guns since 2018 when he had been assaulted.

He also told the psychologist, as he’d always lived in rural areas, he used guns to kill vermin, euthanise animals and engage in hunting as a hobby.

He said hunting helped him clear his mind and that one of the firearms had been given to him and allowed him to kill dogs that were killing sheep.

However, in Judge Alister Abadee’s published decision, he said what Tillman told Mr Borenstein did not reflect well on his general credibility.

“There is nothing in this explanation to Mr Borenstein to indicate that the offender had any concerns for his personal safety (such as his getting them to protect himself after he said he was assaulted) which might explain his retention of the firearms, or any association with criminal elements,” he said.

“He confirmed to the psychologist that the firearms found in his possession were not registered and even indicated – quite brazenly it seemed to me – a hope that he could hold onto them until he reapplied for his firearms licence next year.”

Tillman, a father of three who worked on-call in Marulan for several years, pleaded guilty to a charge of possessing more than three unregistered firearms without authorisation, with one being a prohibited firearm.

It carries a maximum penalty of 20 years’ jail.

Prosecutors argued that contrary to the requirements around the safe storage of firearms – which Tillman should have known as he previously held a licence – the firearms were left in a bag under a swag in a caravan on the front lawn of a residential property.

Judge Abadee found he was not remorseful, lacked insight into his offending and did not have good prospects of rehabilitation.

“The offender appears to me to have stubborn views about rights to gun ownership thoroughly out of kilter with community standards,” he said.

“He evinces an entitlement to them as if the legal restrictions do not apply to him.”

Tillman will be eligible for parole from August 2026.