Roger Byron Leslie Weaver was arrested in August 2019 after police executed a search warrant on an Adelong property and seized dozens of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

Weaver, who was 57 at the time of his arrest, pleaded guilty at Wagga District Court in September last year to the offences of being in possession of more than three unregistered and prohibited firearms and possessing a sawn-off shotgun.

District Court Judge Gordon Lerve imposed a sentence of imprisonment of four years and four months after a discount of 25 per cent for the guilty plea, with a non-parole period of two years and seven months to expire on April 22, 2023.

Weaver appealed the sentence in May this year, arguing that the sentence was "manifestly excessive" based on the claim that Judge Lerve made an error in determining the seriousness of the offences. However, the NSW Supreme Court of Criminal Appeal found against Weaver, noting that his collection of unregistered firearms was 10 times higher than the minimum number needed for the charges brought against him.

"The offence was therefore a particularly serious one of its kind. In my opinion the assessment of objective gravity for this offence as within the mid-range is one which is in no way open to any realistic dispute," Acting Justice Carolyn Simpson stated.

Crown prosecutors had accepted Weaver was "unlikely to re-offend, that he had undergone counselling, that he obviously had good support in the community and that he was remorseful".

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