Springdale Heights man released from jail after 6 weeks' bail refused over pistol

People hurried from the centre in late May when Mathew John Wescombe revealed the gel blaster, which strongly resembled a Beretta 92F pistol in size, colour and weight.

Shoppers saw him stop outside the centre's doors, pull the pistol from his left puffer jacket breast pocket with one hand and use the other to rack the pistol's slide.

Some witnesses were convinced the Springdale Heights father-of-five was in possession of a fully functioning pistol and so called both Triple-0 and centre management.

"One of the witnesses followed the accused into the centre and observed him enter the barber shop," police said.

"The witnesses were initially of the belief the accused was going to hold up one of the stores within the complex."

Several police, all wearing ballistic vests, converged on the centre, arresting Wescombe, now 43, in the Big Barber Shop where he worked.

He readily pointed police to the bag now containing the loaded gun in a staff room.

Magistrate Sally McLaughlin praised the courageous actions of the shopper who followed Wescombe, who appeared on Wednesday, July 12, via a video link to Junee jail where he had been held bail refused.

The six weeks he had spent in custody since his arrest - in isolation, while battling health issues including high-anxiety the man feared would bring on yet another heart attack - acted as sufficient personal deterrence for Wescombe, Ms McLaughlin found.

Nevertheless, she said it was a "very serious" example of the charge of entering a building with a firearm or imitation firearm, made worse by the fact it was in such a public place.

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Ms McLaughlin said Wescombe's own description to police of his actions as stupid was entirely apt for such a crime.

Wescombe once spent three years in jail for firearms-related offences, but had avoided trouble since his release in 2015.

He previously pleaded guilty to the charges of enter building with a firearm or imitation firearm, possess an unauthorised pistol, possess ammunition without holding a licence, permit or authority and not keep a firearm safely.

Ms McLaughlin said although the enter building charge carried a lower maximum jail term on indictment of five years compared with 14 years for the possession charge, it was clearly the most serious of those two charges.

"The building he entered is a major shopping centre ...," she said.

Wescombe went to work on May 31, returning home for his lunch break over a notification a package containing the pistol and ammunition had arrived.

He tried out the $295.36 online purchase at home, but could not get it to fire. With that, he put the pistol into his jacket pocket and returned to Lavington Square to show his colleagues.

The court heard Wescombe, who was highly agitated with anxiety throughout the sentencing hearing, had a range of mental health issues as well as his heart problems and other physical ailments.

But Ms McLaughlin found there was not a nexus between these issues and the offending.

"(That's) because he was fully aware of what he was doing," she said.

"It was highly criminal offending but also impulsive ... (and) also stupid."

Wescombe was given a 12-month intensive corrections order in the community on the enter building charge, with an 8pm to 5am curfew for the first month, was placed on a nine-month community corrections order and fined $1550.

He then expressed his "deepest and sincerest apologies" to the community, witnesses and his own family for his actions.

"I'm sure in hindsight," Ms McLaughlin told him, in response about his crimes, "you can now well understand why it was so serious."

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