An arrest warrant is out for a man who claimed an extendable silver baton found in his car was a coffee table leg and not an illegal weapon.
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That came after Jarrod Kenneth Groves failed to show in Albury Local Court.
The Wagga man contacted the court with the excuse he was sick with gastroenteritis and promised to get a medical certificate to back the claim.
But magistrate Rodney Brender wasn’t swayed and instead convicted Groves in his absence.
“That’s not sufficient in my view,” Mr Brender said of Groves’ excuse, given that witnesses had turned up in readiness for the start to a contested hearing.
Groves, from the Wagga suburb of Kooringal, had previously pleaded not guilty to a single charge of possess or use a prohibited weapon without a permit.
Mr Brender ordered that a warrant be issued for Groves’ arrest after reading an outline of the police allegations against the 28-year-old.
The court was told that police doing patrols of Albury on October 12 saw Groves and a woman leave the back of the Astor Hotel about 11.35am.
They then got in to a car in the back car park that opens on to Guinea Street.
Police said the car was registered to an address “where an offender with outstanding warrants lives”.
They stopped the car after it had been reversed out of a park.
Groves was driving, while a woman “known to police” sat in the front passenger seat.
The woman didn’t provide her name but instead that of someone with the same surname.
When asked for his licence, Groves replied: “I don’t have it on me, I’m on the way to get it renewed.”
Checks on the pair revealed “certain information in regards (to) drug supply in the Albury-Wodonga areas” as well as property and deception offences.
Combined with police concern about “drug-related issues” at licenced premises as well as observations of the pair, especially the woman, they decided to search their car for drugs.
“Yeah, go for it,” Groves told police.
That led to police finding the expandable silver baton in between the driver’s seat and centre console, though Groves tried to claim it was actually a coffee table leg.
An small, camouflaged folding knife was found in the centre console, for which Groves was given an infringement notice after he explained he used this on camping trips.
