A 48-year-old Warwick man pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court yesterday to having a firearm without a licence.

Senior Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said that Alexander Dean Abbot, of Tribe Road, Warwick, had a .22 calibre revolver on his property, which was found inside a container.

In addition, he pleaded guilty to having an explosive substance without lawful authority.

Defence lawyer Allan Doughty told the court that Abbot had no intentions of using the weapon, which was rusted and missing its chamber and cylinder and Abbot had no ammunition.

Mr. Doughty labelled the weapon as "junk" multiple times. "Our case is this," Mr. Doughty explained, "the weapon is a piece of junk, a piece of trash, it was manufactured in 1936."

Mr. Warner responded: "Many people have been shot with antique weapons, matter of fact, some prefer it as the weapon of choice."

Abbot admitted that he had attempted to hand the gun in at the Hamilton Police Station but backed down at the last minute, fearing he might be treated as a criminal as a black man.

He told Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner he had found the gun inside an old outhouse and he was not a criminal. "I'm a developer," he added, "I found the thing in an old outhouse and I made two attempts to hand it in to the Hamilton Police Station, but I was afraid as a black person."

Mr. Warner responded: "What happened? Are you afraid of other black people? Most of the senior officers in the Police Service are black. So you went to the Police station with the gun on two occasions and you changed your mind?"

Mr. Warner ordered that he be remanded into custody until he could sentence him tomorrow morning and also warned that the offence, as harmless as it might appear, carried a custodial sentence.