Judge orders fine for man who packed gun in luggage
http://www.starphoenix.com
By Lori Coolican
A former Saskatchewan hotel owner got a hefty fine Thursday for trying to fly back to his home in Nova Scotia from Saskatoon with an old handgun in his luggage.
Terry Wutzke, 50, pleaded guilty in provincial court to possession of a prohibited semi-automatic handgun without a licence and received a $1,200 fine. Crown prosecutor Judy Halyk dropped an additional charge of transporting the gun to the Saskatoon airport.
Wutzke's arrest at the airport on Wednesday afternoon came about because of "a very serious mistake on his part," Halyk told Judge Benjamin Goldstein.
Wutzke bought the gun - with the proper permits - in order to join a shooting club in 1985, when he owned the hotel in Coleville, she said. The town is about 190 kilometres west of Saskatoon.
He stored it in a safe inside the hotel, but when he sold the place a few years later Wutzke did not know what to do with the gun and decided to bury it behind the hotel, Halyk told court.
In the years after that, "he says he forgot about it," she said. It was not until his most recent visit to Saskatchewan that he remembered the weapon and went to the hotel to dig it up. Finding it in working order with a few leftover bullets, Wutzke test-fired a few rounds, and later told some friends about it over drinks, she said.
Unsure what to do with the weapon now that his permit for it had lapsed, Wutzke thought about throwing it away but decided that would be a bad idea, Halyk said. Still undecided, he took the gun apart and put the pieces in two separate plastic bags, which he then put in his luggage for the trip back to Nova Scotia, thinking he would figure out what to do once he got home.
"It was just a very stupid act on his part," Halyk told court.
Before Wutzke left for the airport, someone made an anonymous tip to police and reported that he was going to the airport with a handgun in his bags. He was followed to the airport by several Saskatoon police officers, who watched him check his luggage for the flight. They had airport security X-ray the bags and locate the gun parts.
Wutzke had no idea of the seriousness of what he was doing and immediately explained what had happened when confronted by the officers, Halyk said. He missed his flight and spent the night in jail.
His lawyer told Goldstein there was a possible defence to the charge, "but to go through the trial provisions is too expensive."
In addition to the fine, Wutzke is prohibited from owning a firearm, ammunition or explosive device for 10 years. He was also required to forfeit the gun permanently to the Crown.
Wutzke could have avoided all the trouble by simply turning the gun over to police, and he would not have been charged with illegal possession, city police Staff Sgt. Al Sather said Thursday.
"We're still accepting those things (without laying a charge)," he said. |
